Andrew Simpson's death: Sir Keith Mills pulled plug on America's Cup campaign because of frightening speeds The wealthy British businessman established Team Origin in 2010 as part of his dream to bring the Auld Mug to the Solent where it was first staged in 1851. The Americans won that first contest but in the past 163 years, no British campaign has ever succeeded in returning it to these shores. Mills recruited Britain's best sailors Andrew "Bart" Simpson, Iain Percy and Ben Ainslie to senior positions and using his own funds, built a TP52 boat, created a team and rolled out a programme for the first phase of the cycle. But in 2011, he suddenly scrapped his plans after hearing more about the 34th America's Cup from Oracle, who as winners of the 2010 America's Cup got to choose the type of boats, venue and other important competition rules. "I pulled the GB team out because it wasn't viable on a number of fronts but safety was one of them," said Mills, who shared a keen interest in Tottenham Hotspur with Simpson. Seeing what those boats were capable of, speeds of up to 40 knots, frightened the life out of me. The class rules looked like they were dangerous boats to sail. At 40 knots, the control is minimal. Hit a big wave and that is it. I saw the plans in 2010 even before they were unveiled and was a bit shocked at the sheer scale of the fixed wing and the speeds but I couldn't quite work out how they were going to be able to keep it afloat. Now an investigation will establish whether it was flawed and if it was too unstable and dangerous which will make the organisers think long and hard about what happens next. Was this a design flaw or just a tragic accident?