Britain as a whole had largely turned its back on its reputation as a nation of seafarers, leaving the sport of sailing as a minority interest.
But the success of the British team at last year's Sydney Olympics and Ellen MacArthur's exploits in the Vendee Globe round-the-world race have changed attitudes.
Britain was the most successful nation on the water at the 2000 Olympics, thanks to the likes of Ben Ainslie, Shirley Robertson and Iain Percy.
MacArthur has also become a celebrity at home after finishing second in the Vendee Globe on Sunday in her 60-foot boat Kingfisher and becoming the fastest woman to sail solo around the world.
At last, the island nation has a media profile to match its sporting talent.
It is this, along with the #300-million ($437-million) million sale of his company Chernikeeff, that has led information technology entrepreneur Peter Harrison to front the first British challenge in 14 years for the Americas Cup.
Harrison's #6.4-million ($9.3-million) kickstart to the campaign has already secured the two 2000-generation yachts, Asura and Idaten, from the Nippon Challenge that featured in last year's challenger series semifinals.
With that have come the necessary containers and berthing space for the challenge to relocate to the other side of the world for the race series in Auckland next year which will decide who will take on holders Team New Zealand in March 2003.
There will soon be little left of Harrison's purse and another #13 million ($18.93 million) will have to be raised for a viable campaign, with the 13-hour time difference between New Zealand and Britain constituting a major hurdle to commercial interest.
But in Harrison, Britain has a steadfastly determined and resourceful syndicate chief.
"The last challenge Britain made, in 1987, was woefully under-funded," he said. "This is the battle for us, to get sponsors interested.
"But we must look at the success of (retail group) Kingfisher. Ellen MacArthur has done fantastically well and she has shown what can be done through the media and the internet which are key factors in securing sponsorship.
Harrison, infectiously optimistic about his project, said he had hopes of securing sponsorship from several companies.
Reuters
Six months ago, the news that Britain was to challenge for the 2003 America's Cup would have caused barely a ripple of interest in the nation.
