Emirates Spinnaker Tower mid-2005. Because of the six-year delay in opening and not having been ready for the Millennium as planned, the tower was renamed as Spinnaker Tower. The overall development project was over budget, with the tower costing £35.6 million alone. Taxpayers were never intended to fund the tower, but Portsmouth City Council eventually contributed £11.1 million towards construction. In March 2004, Portsmouth Council's former leader Cllr Leo Madden resigned as leader of the Labour Group on the council after a highly critical report of the council's handling of the project and its failure to exploit revenue opportunities, such as the Millennium.
Spinnaker accepted term spinnaker. Gordon was widely known in the yachting world of the time as 'Spinnaker Gordon.' It has been pointed out, however, that the skippers of Thames sailing barges also used the term "spinnaker" for their jib staysails. Unlike the other, tanned sails of these boats, the "spinnakers" were usually of white color. It has thus been suggested that the term could be "connected with the obsolete word "spoon", meaning to "run" before the wind (cf. "spindrift")." Early usage of the verb "to spoon" can be traced back to the 16th century; the change from "spoon" to "spin" in