This week, three members of the team Origin are looking at prospective bases for a British America’s Cup.

As the battle continued in the Mediterranean off Valencia, they were touring unglamorous British ports (Torquay, Folkestone, Weymouth, Felixstowe...), imagining them remade into billion-pound centres of international sailing.

Sir Keith Mills, the millionaire entrepreneur who has announced that he is launching a challenge for the next America’s Cup, was last Week in Valencia again, showing prospective business partners for his team around the three new marinas, one of which has been built specifically for super-yachts, and the gleaming hotels and apartments that now surround the harbour.

"It was an old fishing port," remembered Mills. "Some years ago, the city put a huge container port in front of it. The fishing harbour was run down, with drug dealers and prostitutes. It was not a safe place to go."

When asked about a possible America's Cup in Liverpool, Sir Keith Mills said all the options are on the table.

"One of our concerns is how long it takes from the harbour out to the race area", he said. "I wouldn’t discount anywhere. Although the south coast is more likely."

And, of course, he will have to win the America’s Cup first. .