American Magic: Pushing toward victory

In this update from New York Yacht Club’s America’s Cup entry, the American Magic team shares the effort needed to push toward victory:

Each America’s Cup Challenger has a few key tools to work with: The AC75 class rule, fresh talent, proven experience and a finite amount of time. From these common ingredients grows a competitive philosophy that is unique to each team. For American Magic, the U.S. Challenger, this philosophy is centered around a daily refusal to be outworked.

“Our mentality is that each day is a race day,” said Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and Executive Director of New York Yacht Club American Magic. “When you practice like you race, and make your practice days harder than race days, the racing tends to get easier.”

Solving the design puzzle of the AC75 class rule and building a winning platform requires not only innovation, but boldness. “You have to have an attitude to how you’re going to approach the rule and the documents [that govern the America’s Cup],” said Flight Controller Andrew Campbell. “You have to have a certain perspective. You have to attack it. You can’t just react.”

In a normal America’s Cup cycle, each team would face the crucible of early exhibition regattas. These events would provide a glimpse into the progress of each team, and provide a stress test for each distinct philosophy. COVID-19 has upended much of that, along with the rest of the sporting world.

“This is such a unique regatta, and it’s such a unique time,” said Hutchinson. “Because of the world and the environment we’ve been living in, all the teams are going to face the challenge of not really having raced in the last twelve months.

“And yet we’re on the eve of something we’ve been preparing for the last three years. I’m excited by that, I’m confident in the team and I’m confident in the trajectory that we’re on.”

Bold decision-making on the design and production sides, buttressed by aggressive training on the water, are the sources of this confidence, according to American Magic Coach James Lyne.

“When we do something well we build confidence in each other and in the boat,” said Lyne. “If we have confidence in each other we’re going to get through those bad times and have more of those good times. It’s about learning. We’ve got a group of younger sailors and we’ve got a group of older sailors.”

A combination of youthful ambition and proven talent can be found across each area of the 150-strong U.S. team.

“It’s really easy to look at us as a new team, but when you look around at every one of these departments there’s a ton of experience,” said Campbell. “When you see how we are hitting these milestones, when you see how we are performing day-in and day-out, you understand very quickly that we’re not a new team here. This is a team that’s ready to hit the ground running on race day.”

Details: www.americascup.com

36th America’s Cup
In addition to Challenges from Italy, USA, and Great Britain that were accepted during the initial entry period (January 1 to June 30, 2018), eight additional Notices of Challenge were received by the late entry deadline on November 30, 2018. Of those eight submittals, entries from Malta, USA, and the Netherlands were also accepted. Here’s the list:

Defender:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

Challengers:
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger of Record
• American Magic (USA)
• INEOS Team UK (GBR)
• Malta Altus Challenge (MLT) – WITHDRAWN
• Stars + Stripes Team USA (USA) – STATUS UNKNOWN
• DutchSail (NED) – WITHDRAWN

Of the three late entries, only Stars+Stripes USA remains committed, however, it is unclear what entry payments have been made, nor is there knowledge of a boat being actively built or sailing team assembled.

Key America’s Cup dates:
✔ September 28, 2017: 36th America’s Cup Protocol released
✔ November 30, 2017: AC75 Class concepts released to key stakeholders
✔ January 1, 2018: Entries for Challengers open
✔ March 31, 2018: AC75 Class Rule published
✔ June 30, 2018: Entries for Challengers close
✔ August 31, 2018: Location of the America’s Cup Match and The PRADA Cup confirmed
✔ August 31, 2018: Specific race course area confirmed
✔ November 30, 2018: Late entries deadline
✔ March 31, 2019: Boat 1 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ 2nd half of 2019: 2 x America’s Cup World Series events (CANCELLED)
✔ October 1, 2019: US$1million late entry fee deadline (NOT KNOWN)
✔ February 1, 2020: Boat 2 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ April 23-26, 2020: First (1/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Cagliari, Sardinia (CANCELLED)
✔ June 4-7, 2020: Second (2/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth, England (CANCELLED)
• December 17-20, 2020: Third (3/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Auckland, New Zealand
• January 15-February 22, 2021: The PRADA Cup Challenger Selection Series
• March 6-15, 2021: The America’s Cup Match

Youth America’s Cup Competition (CANCELLED)
• February 18-23, 2021
• March 1-5, 2021
• March 8-12, 2021

AC75 launch dates:
September 6, 2019 – Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Boat 1
September 10, 2019 – American Magic (USA), Boat 1; actual launch date earlier but not released
October 2, 2019 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 1
October 4, 2019 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 1
October 16, 2020 – American Magic (USA), Boat 2
October 17, 2020 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 2
October 20, 2020 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 2

Details: www.americascup.com