(Reuters) -Oscar winner Anne Hathaway has sailed into sports ownership, joining a female-led consortium that has acquired the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team in a landmark deal bringing Hollywood star power to the high-octane racing championship.

Sailing great Jimmy Spithill has been installed as team CEO and co-owner, with investors from entertainment, luxury goods and finance in what SailGP CEO Russell Coutts called "another significant milestone in SailGP's growth as a league",

SailGP is the international sailing league featuring high-performance F50 foiling catamarans, with national teams competing in short-format races at coastal venues around the world.

Founded in 2018, the series aims to revolutionise sailing with fast-paced, made-for-broadcast events and cutting-edge data analytics.

The current SailGP season features 12 teams competing. The next event on the calendar is the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix, scheduled for June 7-8.

(Reporting by Ossian Shine, editing by Ed Osmond)