With the AC75s of Emirates Team New Zealand and INEOS Britannia tucked in their sheds getting final nips and tucks ahead of this weekend’s start to the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup all was quiet along the waterfront. And it would have been easy to miss the simmering excitement at Barcelona’s Port Olimpic if were not for the boisterous arrivals of the chase boats of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and American Magic, packed full of team members to spur the women of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup as they wait to dock out for one final day of qualification races.

Berthed in order of the rankings, at one end of the quay are the sailors, friends and families of INEOS Britannia’s Athena Pathway sailors in their pole-position parking spot. Next to them, the sailors of Alinghi Red Bull Racing team, then Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, Emirates Team New Zealand and Orient Express Racing Team. At pit row’s end is the AC40 of the New York YC’s American Magic.

Helena Scutt, a designer with New York YC challenge, darts past with a camera and a roll of tape, which she stows on the chase boat. She’s an alternate, and today will be watching and analyzing as the American women sail four races to dig themselves out of the basement and into the top three of the Group A fleet.

Group A are teams associated with the Cup teams and Group B are the “invited” teams. They’ve already completed their qualifying races for the Semi Final, with Swedish Challenge Women’s Team Powered by Artemis, Jajo Team Dutchsail, and the locals of SailTeam BCN making the cut after a few spectacularly breezy races.

Scutt’s adivce for the team today is simple: “Don’t worry too much about the points, if we sail the boat well it will show,” she says. “It’s about mastering our own boat before worrying about what other people are doing.”

Success will come, she assures me. It will be a matter of “heads out of the boat,” she says. “Keeping it simple and looking for pressure. You can’t worry about the shifts. It’s just about staying in the breeze and on the foils.”

While the team could have warmed up with a few laps on the simulator, today, Scutt says, starboard helmswoman Erika Reineke eschewed the additional screen time. “Erika didn’t want to sim this morning because she wanted to be head-out-of-the-boat,” Scutt says, “she just wanted to not get too locked in on the screen.”

When it comes to AC40 racing, there’s plenty the simulator can’t do and that includes acclimating one’s cranial settings to recent updates to the AC40’s autopilot software. Emirates Team New Zealand writes all the autopilot software, Scutt says, while the helms are adjusting the boat’s trim, its pitch, the depth of the foils and their cant angle. “Essentially, you input what you want and the autopilot achieves that,” Scutt says. The autopilot update came about a month ago, toward the end of their training period, so all the teams are still adapting to it.

“In order to keep the rudder immersed a certain amount to prevent losing it, if it detects that the rudder is—it used to be less than 300mm of immersion—it kicks the rudder and sinks the stern so you have more of a bow-up trim. If you have a combination of too much ride height and leeward heel it, the geometry changes and [the autopilot] kicks the rudder. They changed it to 500mm of immersion so the kicks are happening more often. Now you’re bow-up and it forces a reset, so you have to ease sails and get settled again.”

As Scutt explains the intricacies of the autopilot software, the chase boats arrive into the marina with a cacophony of horns and music, an impromptu postponement harbor parade of sorts. Onboard American Magic’s chase, rap music is booming. The Italians follow, waving the red-white-and green, which stirs the Italian camp into a flag-waving volley.

The American Magic sailors dash out to the bow of the AC40 to reciprocate the celebration. Port helmswoman Francesca Clapcich sprints out to the bow and dances on the foredeck to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” ba-bop-ba-da-bop…let’s go girls…” and then to Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman,” appropriate tunes, not just for the Magic sailors, but for the two dozen females whose skills, determination and patience have earned them a spotlight on sailing’s biggest stage.

While this gathering feels more like a side-stage gig to the Cup itself, the excitement is as palpable as it should be. This is historic stuff in a sport that’s long been skewed male, and as they peel off the dock and turn to the racecourse one at a time, each and everyone one of them knows it. Smiles and hand hearts say it all.  

 “It’s really cool, and hopefully they [America’s Cup organizers] keep it rolling next time,” says American Magic coach Charlie Ogletree. “I can’t see them going backward.”

We’re interrupted by the arrival of legendary hardware maven and sailing Hall of Famer Peter Harken who’s out wandering the scene. He agrees it’s very cool and he’s been enjoying watching it from the Barcelona beachside condo where he’s been posted up for a while.

Forty minutes or so later, these six Group A teams are on the America’s Cup racecourse, foiling into lumpy swells in winds just barely strong enough to get and keep the AC40s on their skinny foils. These boats are difficult enough to handle in marginal winds, but the big swells make every hard turn of the steering wheels a 50-50 proposition.

The women of American Magic are quick to follow the day’s plan: have a good start, get the first shift and go from there. It’s basic stuff, but to get out of the basement and make the Semi Final cut, requires at least one race win and a couple of top finishes. Beyond that, all they can do is let the fleet sort itself out.

With a well-timed approach, Reineke, the starboard helmswoman and Fort Lauderdale’s ILCA 6 Olympian, is cracking the line, on time and with plenty of pace. It’s a great start in the middle of the line. The women of Emirates Team New Zealand are a touch late to the line, but have a better speed build and are immediately advanced on the Americans, positioned to leeward.

Approaching the left boundary, Reineke and her starboard trimmer, Olympic Mixed 470 sailor Louisa Nordstrom, drop the foil and turn the steering wheel, and then pass the responsibility to the port-side pair of Clapcich and Sara Stone. With their foiling tack complete, all looks perfect as they accelerate out of the tack and straight into the waves on port, flying up the course and momentarily into second place. 

“Our priority was the start,” Clapcich says when we meet outside the Media Mixed Zone after racing, “because we’ve been missing quite a lot, and I definitely can take that on me as I’m on port and responsible for getting all the pre-starts set up for the last tack. So, I didn’t deliver the first day of racing, and that was really high in my priority, to get back into our good pattern, getting out of the line fast.”

The New Zealanders, however, have a jump on the fleet, as do the Brits. The Kiwis are first through the windward gate and streak down the run with what could be—and should be—a runaway win. 

But a failed layline jibe at the bottom corner of the course has the Kiwis bobbing. The race is wide open.

INEOS’s Athena Pathway says, thank you very much as they temporarily snatch on final approach to the leeward gate. But in a blink the Brits are off the foils too and doing the displacement foredeck dance. Now streaking down the middle of the course with a straight shot and through the gate first is Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s squad.

Meanwhile, a few teams at the back of the fleet, including American Magic, are linking jibes and steaming down the racecourse too. American Magic sails past the Kiwis to round third through the gate, a position they will hold to the finish of a race that is eventually shortened to three legs. With a third, American Magic finally pockets valuable points, but they remain at the bottom of the Group A standings. Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s win makes it mathematically more difficult for the Americans.

“We never gave up,” Clapchic says. “Even before the start, we were really focused on it being us and the boat. We knew that it was a really open race and anybody could win so we stayed really focused on our own boat and tried to make smart decisions on maneuvers. It’s a bummer for us that Alinghi won, but we cannot control what other boats do.”

With this fifth qualifying race in the books, there’s a pause for the next but what wind there is fading fast. And then comes the wait. And more waiting until the race committee calls it quits for the day. The Swiss are content with a win.

“Today was one of the best days of my life,” Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s port helmswoman Alexandra Stalder says after racing. “Winning a race in the Cup is something special, so I’m super happy. But we’re not yet confirmed for the next round, so we have to fight for these last points. Tonight is an important night—we have to sleep well and be ready for tomorrow.”

There are only three remaining races to determine the final pecking order, and tomorrow morning at Port Olimpic will, no doubt, have a familiar feel to it. With a good night’s sleep and another raucous repeat send off from Port Olimpic the fleet will be straight into a race-packed day on Friday October 11 with races for both A and B groups. Should the wind cooperate, of course.

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It stings when an America’s Cup campaign ends without the sailors hoisting or chugging from the Auld Mug like they dream about. But when it’s the New York Yacht Club that comes up short, the loss seems a lot heavier. Bearing that burden in Barcelona today is American Magic’s skipper and President of Sailing Operations Terry Hutchinson who will spend the next few months trying to figure out what led to a second straight exit from the challenger semifinals and what to do better next time—should there be a next time.

American Magic was once again eliminated by Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team’s fast silver AC75 to a 5-3 victory in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals, an improvement from 2021 when they returned to Pensacola winless following a capsize and near sinking of its first-generation Patriot off Auckland that effectively ended the campaign.

“What could we have done better? Why are we in this situation and how can we improve if we’re given the opportunity to go forward? I mean, we could always be better. But it’s not a criticism of any one thing because these things are hard and the competitors are very good.”

Terry Hutchinson, American Magic Skipper and President of Sailing Operations

While Luna Rossa takes on Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Britannia for the right to face two-time defending America’s Cup champion Emirates Team New Zealand, American Magic will begin debriefing and packing up to return to Pensacola, where the team is building a $15 million training center.

A few big questions hang over the end of this Cup campaign, however, which has been largely financed by principals Hap Fauth and Doug DeVos in the latest attempt to return the Auld Mug to the NYYC’s clubhouse on West 44^th Street in Manhattan. Cup pundits and fans will long wonder how much American Magic’s performance was affected by the loss of co-helmsman Paul Goodison who broke five ribs before the semifinals when he fell into an open hatch while helping to carry the mainsail across the deck.

Lucas Calabrese was subbed in for the more experienced Goodison to helm opposite Tom Slingsby. “We’ve been asked a couple times, you know, would it be different? It’s simply, the boat’s performance was good,” Hutchinson says. “Lucas did an outstanding job. We had trained for it. And, you know, you can’t really engage in a hypothetical because it’s a hypothetical. And out of respect to the guys on the boat, I think that’s a disservice to the entire team.

“But I can tell you that the boat’s performance was good and they raced it well and they did a lot of things really well. And so, in that vein, it was good.”

Praising the work of designers Aaron Perry, Britt Ward and Pete Melvin, Hutchinson said the newest Patriot was “a great boat. I would say the guys punched well above their weight for the amount of time they had.”

Speaking a few days after elimination, Hutchinson said it was time to move on from talking about the disappointment and focus on the why. “Like, what could we have done better? Why are we in this situation and how can we improve if we’re given the opportunity to go forward? I mean, we could always be better. But it’s not a criticism of any one thing because these things are hard and the competitors are very good.”

Hutchinson is game to continue pursuing the America’s Cup and says, “You’re never going to back away from a challenge and this is definitely a challenge.”

Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton suggested recently that if the Kiwis retain the Cup, the next edition could come as soon as 2026, which seems to fit well with Hutchinson’s thoughts for the next regatta.

“If Team New Zealand was to win, the challenge is to sit down and have a good conversation with Dalts about how to move the America’s Cup forward, how to move it into the 21st Century, really,” Hutchinson says. “We have all the correct technology pieces to the puzzle. And so, what it needs is continuity and marketability. The opportunity is there because the boats are so cool and so I think we want to model ourselves after what other sports have done.”

He mentions Formula One and even SailGP, the global league backed by former America’s Cup winner Larry Ellison that features many sailors from the America’s Cup. “What SailGP has done is really good. It doesn’t have the lure of the America’s Cup, but it’s still a great platform,” Hutchinson says. “Let’s look at those things and see how we can grab, are they good pieces, and incorporate it into the America’s Cup.”

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April began with new-boat reveals that highlight the innovations of the second-generation AC75s for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. While similar in size and scale, no one boat is alike. 

Alinghi Red Bull Racing, of the Swiss camp, was first to show its AC75, BoatOne, in a theatric soiree, giving observers and other teams a peek at the boat’s design traits. Its straight and narrow bow profile transitions to a long and tapered bustle that goes all the way to the stern. The walls of BoatOne’s tall crew pods stop sharply before the transom section, leaving what amounts to a long overhang to accommodate the internal rudder elements. Bumps sculpted into the foredeck are said to redirect wind flow into the jib and down the middle of the boat for aerodynamic gains.

America’s Cup defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, was next to reveal, with a soft launch, followed by a foiling session the following day. With a naming ceremony that came a week later, the Kiwis’ AC75, Taihoro, was blessed for action, and they went straight into sailing in Auckland. Unlike the high cockpit walls of Alinghi’s BoatOne, however, those of Taihoro taper down toward to the ­transom scoop, which houses the mainsheet traveler system in a trench, and the rudder assembly.

The following day in Cagliari, the Italians of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out their metallic silver AC75, a menacing-looking design that has its pronounced curves and a significant bustle which rises toward the stern. The boat’s tall cockpits produce a deep trench through the middle of the boat. 

INEOS Britannia was fourth from behind the curtain with a boat dubbed RB3. It’s different enough from Alinghi’s and ETNZ’s AC75s to be dangerous. The plumb bow starts sharp and maintains a steep deadrise before flaring out to a flatter bottom. A pronounced ­bustle tapers off near the stern and transitions to a thin skeg that ends short of the rudder.

The New York YC’s American Magic revealed its boat, Patriot, in early May, blessing it and going sailing on the same day. It’s certainly a different look, summarized by the team’s design coordinator, Scott Ferguson. “We followed our own design path with Patriot as we pushed the limits of the AC75 rule while tailoring for the Barcelona venue,” he says. “Our overall philosophy is minimalistic, as we’ve tried to squeeze down our volumes to the base minimum while still fitting the crew and systems into the boat.”

With the French Orient Express Racing Team pulling from Team New Zealand’s design package, there’s an expectation that its ­platform will not be too far off the defender when it comes to light soon enough. It had not yet been launched at press time.

In terms of crew-pod assignments, cyclors have now taken the back seats, mostly concealed and out of the airstream, while ­trimmers and helmsmen take the front seats for a better view of the action. American Magic went to the extreme, positioning three pods inboard, two well aft in the boat, with cyclors on recumbent bikes.

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As complex as the AC75s will be when launched for racing at the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Challenger Series, New York YC’s American Magic trimmer Lucas Calabrese says that getting the team’s 75-foot foiler around the racecourse will demand the same fundamentals he honed in his years of Olympic 470 sailing. A mainsail is a mainsail, after all, but how trimmers manage the power in these towering high-aspect sails is exponentially more critical. The AC75 Tech Regulations, which define virtually every aspect of the AC75, are “quite restrictive” with the sails, Calabrese says. But for the second-generation twin-skinned mainsails, there is plenty of innovation yet to come.

Most teams accept that Barcelona will be a generally lighter-wind venue, so most design packages will focus on performance in medium to light breezes. And when it comes to designing the “aero package” for these AC75s, the challenge is to have ample power in the sails for takeoff and minimal drag when up to speed. “These boats go very fast, and as soon as we’re going very fast, we need to get rid of a lot of area, which we can do,” Calabrese says. “But the hard part is that we also need to maneuver and need to accelerate. So, there’s no one solution to this challenge. It all relates to the rest of the package.”

That package, of course, includes foils, flaps, a rudder, rudder elevators, and countless other considerations. But for Calabrese, the main concern is the mainsail he’s tasked to trim with efficiency. The controls at his disposal include the mainsheet, which controls leech tension like any sailboat. Unlike a traditional keelboat, however, the AC75s have no booms. Given the high apparent wind angles at which these boats sail, booms are essentially unnecessary. With such narrow angles and no boom, Calabrese says that the mainsail could be considered as being more akin to a jib. The mainsheet simply impacts leech tension (on both mainsail skins), and then there’s the outhauls, which work ­similarly to a traditional outhaul. The cunningham system, he says, “is a pretty simple setup.” One additional consideration is mast rotation.

“Those are the main controls we use to set up the sails, and are important to controlling the boat’s heel angle,” Calabrese says. “But the most important tool to control the heel is the traveler. Heel is important because it’s all related to the foil-cant angle and to the flap, and to the stability of the boat.”

On the AC40s, used for pre-Cup development and preliminary regattas, the traveler system is battery-powered, so mainsail trimmers use it extensively. On the AC75, however, the traveler is powered by humans, the cyclors, so teams are more limited in the amount of traveler adjustments. “You just need to know how to use it wisely,” Calabrese says.

Outhaul adjustments are more micromovements, but because the clews are so close to the traveler itself, “the angle changes quite abruptly with small movements,” Calabrese says. “For every centimeter you move the outhaul track, you’re moving the angle, so you get a nice effect without having to move them too much.”

As for the cunningham, the loads are smaller to begin with at low speeds, but as speed builds, more travel in the system is required. The faster they go, the faster it changes; faster equals more load and more effort to pull, which requires more power from the cyclors.

Preliminary racing in the AC40s has demonstrated one of the most important elements of sailing an AC75: the takeoff. Initiating takeoff is one of the more challenging moments, Calabrese says, because the apparent wind angle during the acceleration phase is quite wide. The first thing they must do is rotate the mast fully to try to be as close as they can to the apparent wind angle. With maximum rotation, the traveler is pulled outboard.

“Because we don’t have a boom, it’s the only way to get the sail to set wider,” Calabrese explains. “So, basically, we’re trying to have good trim on [the main and jib], making sure that the two leeches are matched.”

As the speed builds, so too does the apparent wind as it shifts forward. “That’s when you start trimming on. And once we reach the boatspeed that we think we can pull up, that’s when we do the final trim up on the traveler. That will basically get us onto the foils, and once we’re on the foils, the speeds start going up really, really fast.”

At that point, he says, they’re looking to shed excess drag in the sails, using all the tools at their disposal (and this applies to the jib as well): cunninghams, outhauls and mast rotation. “Upwind, the apparent wind angle is about 13 degrees or so, and downwind really is not that much different,” Calabrese says. “So, basically, once we are up in the air, it’s about flattening the sails as much as we can.”

All of this, of course, requires tapping into the wattage output of the cyclors hammering away on their cranks. “We have the sensitivity of needing human power to move every sail control,” Calabrese says, “so we have to be mindful that if we’re moving the traveler all the time, the cyclors are not going to be happy.”
Takeoff is one thing, but the high-speed bear away at the top of the course is another. It’s the most difficult maneuver, especially uprange, Calabrese says. “Everything is very loaded, and we’re going very, very fast, so it’s all about timing. We have to be ready to time the helm really well because if you get to the point where the helmsman is going into the power zone and you start to heel to leeward, you can really start to lose it rapidly, which happens on an almost daily basis on the AC40s.”

Success in the bear away is therefore all about being in precise synchronization. If the helmsman turns downwind and the boat is not properly depowered, leeward heel increases rapidly, and the point of no return is instant. “When you heel to leeward, you’re losing your righting moment quickly, and it snowballs. What happens next is the rudder comes out of the water, and then it’s over.”

Equally demanding on the power team and critical to being in sync is the turn through the bottom gate, especially when it’s windy. Going into the turn, the trimmers rely on software to tell them the time and distance to the turn. It’s also important that the cyclors know how far out they are from the mark—when things start getting pulled on and loaded, they’d better be ready for maximum output. The timing has to be right; pull things on too early, and VMG drops. Too late is too late. The sequence of events, Calabrese says, is cunningham on, outhauls adjusted, and then be prepared for the round up and acceleration. Mainsheet and jib-sheet adjustments ­happen in sync.

“The hardest part is to time things right so that you don’t end up with things trimmed on too early or too late,” he says.

And let’s not forget about the traveler; there’s a lot of big adjustments right after turning up, which draws a lot of energy from the cyclors. The cascading effect of any late adjustment is that other controls come on even later, which then requires even more traveler adjustments to follow. “Like every boat, if your sails are not in the right shape, you’re gonna end up way more unstable,” Calabrese says. “It’s similar here, so you want to make sure when you go around the mark, you can be pretty much set. It’s as much about managing the pressure from the cyclors as it is doing what you want. A lot of the time, you just can’t do what you wish to do.”

If the mainsail comes on too early and the jib late, the boat “gets pretty backloaded, and you can spin pretty quickly,” Calabrese adds. “Been there, done that. These are ­incredibly sensitive boats, regardless of how big they are. And we have to be very careful making sure we’re balanced because even though they’re big and heavy, they are still super-sensitive to being in the proper sail trim. The issues come when the helmsman turns and the sail trimmers are not ready or not ahead. That’s when you get into problems.”

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Perched on the shores of the deepwater Pensacola Bay, in the farthest northwest corner of the Florida Panhandle, the city of Pensacola had for years eluded the sailing spotlight. So-named for the long-haired indigenous inhabitants encountered by the Spanish explorers of the 1500s, Pensacola’s identity has ebbed and flowed with the tides. This City of Five Flags was abandoned for nearly a century after a hurricane wiped out its original Spanish inhabitants, to later be governed by France, Great Britain, the US and the Confederate States of America. 

A significant economic contributor to Florida for timber and fishing in the 1930s and 1940s, Pensacola’s sailing culture flourished in the decades that followed but fell dormant in the aftermath of the 1970s and 1980s hurricanes, which once again drove an entire generation elsewhere. 

With a history as turbulent as the hurricanes that defined it, the city on the bay is rising again, this time capitalizing on its distinguishing geographic features. 

Immediate past commodore of the Pensacola Yacht Club Tom Pace knows the city—and its bay—quite well. The once-professional windsurfer grew up in Pensacola, moved away during the aforementioned dormant years, but returned to care for his ailing parents. His love for Pensacola inspired a Quixote-esque quest to showcase the bay’s ideal location and sailing conditions. 

Spanning roughly 5-by-11 miles in depths of 22 to 32 feet, Pensacola Bay’s sail-racing area takes advantage of the optimal sailing conditions. Here, wind conditions vary from season to season, but serve up a perfect 8.1 mph average punctuated by 15 to 25 mph frontal surges between October and May. The warmer months see light winds in the morning building into a southwesterly sea breeze later in the day.

The bay has been home to several notable youth sailing events in recent years, including the 2018 Optimist National Championship and the US Sailing Youth National Championship, as well as a host of national and international regattas. 

“It had been a dream for years,” Pace says. “We are trying to rebuild a sailing culture.” 

Pace’s vision coincided with the brewing of the perfect storm—one propelled by the New York Yacht Club’s decision to challenge the 36th America’s Cup. Led by three-time Maxi72-class champion and yachtsman John “Hap” Fauth, businessman Roger Penske and Quantum Racing head Doug DeVos, the AC Cup Challenger team American Magic was looking for a training base. Key West offered the infrastructure but temperamental conditions. Pensacola’s protected bay, on the other hand, offered conditions similar to Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.

“We kept bugging American Magic to relocate from Key West to Pensacola,” Pace says. “The bay offers winds from every direction and, unlike San Francisco or New York, it’s not as seasonal. The cost of living factors in as well.” Team representative Dr. Jim Andrews visited during a particularly stellar 40-knot day. “We got a call a month later from Tyson Lamont (WHO). They would need a dock, containers, and stakes for tent structures for the AC36 Challenger team who would use Pensacola Bay as its winter training base, named Warehouse 10.

“In the 1984 Olympics, the US took gold or silver in each of 12 sailing medal divisions,” said Pace. “Since then we’ve fallen off; during the past three Olympic cycles, the US has had one medal. Hap and Doug saw this stagnation of American sailing and went back to the cradle. They needed a performance sailing center.”

In 2020, the biggest names in American sailing turned their attention not only to US sailing, but to Pensacola as well. Names such as Paul Cayard, Dawn Riley, Ray Palmer, Terry Hutchinson, and Mike Cazer were each influential in the fledgling opti, foils, and Moth events now surging on the bay.

This year, Pace’s vision for Pensacola came one step closer to reality when the board of Triumph Gulf Coast voted unanimously to approve an $8.5 million grant for design, renovation, and completion of the American Magic training facility. The new Center for Maritime Excellence will serve as the permanent headquarters for the American Magic team. On top of this, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a $3.9 million grant from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to strengthen Pensacola’s infrastructure and “promote economic opportunities in the sailing industry for the Florida Panhandle.”

“There is a lot of excitement here now that real hard dollars are going into our vision,” says Pace. “None of this would have been possible without Merrill Land Company President/Owner Collier Merrill at the state level and Ellis Bullock, President/Creative Director of marketing and communications firm EW Bullock on the local level. Without them we would not have begun the sponsorship of American Magic. In fact, Pensacola, Florida will now be displayed on the sails through the Cup Finals. They have been critical to the relationship with local leaders as well as with the Governor, Florida Senators and Congressmen, and remain the bedrock of all of this.

“Our task now is to build out the infrastructure,” says Pace. “The marina space may be a challenge but the water is not. There is a load of potential in revitalizing the waterfront as well as downtown Pensacola.”

Now that the momentum is going, Pace can already taste an American Magic win in Barcelona. “If American Magic wins, how do we shape up the defense in Pensacola? There is a lot of excitement. We need tourist development and the county engaged, if it’s all going to work. What we have is an incredibly cohesive core group that we hope will influence the ancillaries. Everything has been set, we have legitimate money, everybody is in. If you build a little bit of infrastructure, you will attract a lot.”

Godspeed, Pensacola. We’ll see you on the bay.

To learn more about Pensacola sailing visit www.visitpensacola.com/feature/sailing/.

The post Winds of Change appeared first on Sailing World.

While some might question how much trickle-down there is from the current breed of foiling America’s Cup boats to the average sailor, there’s one area certain to benefit all of us—technical sailing clothing. In their second campaign with American Magic, Helly Hansen has been in constant consultation with the team to develop what, for us, represents the next generation of innovations in technical gear. Some are specific to AC boats, such as where knives and rescue air will be stored or strategically placed armor. But other aspects, such as the continued development of highly resilient materials that allow sailors to perform at the highest levels, are something we’re already seeing in Helly Hansen’s commercially available products. And while you can’t purchase the exact gear the American Magic team wears on the water yet (select pieces will be available next year), you can get a version of it, right now, through Helly Hansen’s In-Line Sailing Collection that feature some of the favorite pieces the team uses day in and day out. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Helly Hansen’s partnership with American Magic has also resulted in something sailors will love: the AC 37 NYYC American Magic Supporter Collection. We got a sneak peek at a few samples of the product line, which will have limited availability on the Helly Hansen website, with more gear being introduced throughout the campaign. A new red, white and blue American Magic logo adorns the back of each piece of gear, as well as a smaller version of the logo on the front.

First was the waterproof crew jacket, which is perfect for those cool spring sailing days when you’re on deck and just need a small buffer to keep the elements away, or maybe for a cool, foggy morning beach walk. It’s just a great, all-around grab-and-go jacket. You’ll appreciate the fleece-lined collar, behind which is an envelope for the hood, and fleece-lined front pockets. Speaking of pockets, there’s all you’ll need, including a front breast pocket for stashing a cellphone, the aforementioned hand-warmer pockets, and an inside security pocket.  But what’s really cool is the mesh liner in both the jacket body and the hood—the perfect moisture barrier. 

Then Helly offers the American Magic hoodie and racing tee.. The hoodie is made from cotton and includes a beefy drawstring and usual kangaroo-style pocket, for a classic comfy feel. The Racing Tee feels and acts like cotton but is actually made from recycled polyester that has been infused with recycled coffee grounds during the fiber creation process to provide everlasting UPF protection and natural anti-odor properties – yes, from recycled coffee grounds. It comes in what Helly Hansen calls a gray “fog,” in other words, a light gray. It’s a great all-around color that will keep you from overheating on hot days but not show dirt as easily as a white tee. It’s perfect for working on and around boats—or just showing support for the American Magic team. The Supporter Collection has a coolness factor that takes them well beyond your typical hoodie or tee.

The collection includes a wide variety of practical items, including tech T-shirts, jackets, pullovers, polo shirts, fleece, backpacks, belts and hats—something for every taste, interest and budget. And while much of it is unisex, there are a number of products designed specifically for women and kids, including a polo shirt, vest and fleece pullover for women, and tees and hats for kids. For more information on the complete collection, go to: hellyhansen.com/mens/shop-by/american-magic.

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The American Magic’s summer sailing squad includes Olympic Gold Medalists Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison, Olympic Bronze Lucas Calabrese, U.S. Olympians Andrew Campbell and Riley Gibbs, and Etchell World Champion Michael Menninger.

Under the leadership of Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and President of Sailing Operations, and Coach Tom Burnham, NYYC American Magic has assembled a group comprising a mix of youthful talent and experienced sailors. Eleven athletes will embark on their first America’s Cup cycle, including Harry Melges, who was named US Sailing’s 2021 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year.

Hutchinson and Burnham have selected seven afterguard members and ten cyclors, showcasing the squad’s flexibility, as many sailors can fulfill multiple positions.

“We are fortunate to have assembled a strong sailing team. The squad represents a good balance of experience on the water and athletically with the cyclors. The process put forward by training coaches Baden Cashmore and Ben Day to develop the power plant of the team has produced significant results.” said Terry Hutchinson.

“Our training will continue on the coastal waters off of Barcelona.  We look forward to learning the venue and focusing on developing our platforms.”

The team will train in Barcelona ahead of the first Preliminary Regatta of the 37th America’s Cup in Vilanova i la Geltrú. The racing is scheduled to take place over four days between September 14th and 17th, 2023, in the new foiling class – the AC40.

Having recently relocated from Pensacola, American Magic is now based in Barcelona for the final phase of the 37th America’s Cup campaign in 2024. The 37th America’s Cup will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in September and October 2024.

The Squad:

Afterguard: 
Lucas Calabrese, Andrew Campbell, Riley Gibbs, Paul Goodison, Harry Melges, Michael Menninger, Tom Slingsby.

Cyclors:
Trevor Burd, John Croom, Cooper Dressler, Colton Hall, Tim Hornsby, Ashton Lambie, Madison Molitor, Ethan Seder, Chris Shirley, James Wright.

The post American Magic Gets to Work in Barcelona appeared first on Sailing World.

American Magic’s AC75 Patriot glides through the water near Pensacola, Florida, and as it picks up speed with the day’s favorable winds, the imposing dark hull rises from the water and begins to plane on its hydrofoils. Crouched near the bow, pedaling furiously, John Croom is lashed by spray. His earpiece crackles with chatter from the rest of the crew. He has watched videos of America’s Cup boats. He’s logged hundreds of hours of training on land. But this is his first time—his first time on any sailboat.

“Still to this day, that’s one of the most euphoric moments I’ve ever had in my career,” Croom says. “Getting the opportunity to sail, and then just feeling that actual takeoff and being on the foils was something super special. That was the day I fell in love with it.”

While some of sailing’s traditionalists bristle at the inclusion of cyclors in lieu of grinders on America’s Cup boats, there’s no turning back now. The technology will be found on every boat in the 2024 America’s Cup.

This novel power-delivery method has opened the door for newcomers like Croom to hop aboard, like throwing a ­drivers-ed student into a Formula 1. It has also led to a revolution in the way America’s Cup teams recruit talent, hone their physiological training, and use cycling know-how to power the AC75’s hydraulic controls.

“We’re finding that cyclors bring much more power to the table,” says Ben Day, American Magic’s performance lead. “Cycling uses much bigger muscle groups; therefore, they can produce more power than arm grinders. And with the new AC75 regulations of reducing crew numbers (eight sailors total), we need to find that power in other ways. So, most teams are looking at cyclors at this stage. Glutes, quads and hamstrings can produce more explosive power and more power for a longer sustained period.”

Day is another example of someone outside the sailing establishment who quickly entered American Magic’s inner circle. Day had a 12-year career as a professional cyclist, racing primarily in North America. Once he retired from racing, the Australian started Day by Day Coaching out of his adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado.

Not surprisingly, Day and American Magic looked to the cycling world to find athletes to fill their “power teams.” The team had preliminary conversations with Kiel Reijnen, a professional rider who spent six years in cycling’s WorldTour, racing the sport’s premier events, such as the Tour of Spain, Tour of Flanders, and multiple UCI World Championships.

“We focused on leg-­dominant power sports, with similar activities that would fit the needs for racing on the boat,” says Day of the recruitment process. “We have taken time to examine a whole list of athletes that might fit the bill, and then have reached out to consider interest.”

It wasn’t as simple as assembling a bench of top cyclists. The rule book states the combined weight of the eight-person crew must be between 680 and 700 kilograms. Split evenly, that means each person should be between 85 and 87.5 kilograms. Reijnen weighs 65 kilograms. It’s rare to find a pro cyclist that weighs more than 80 kilograms because power-to-weight ratio in cycling rules all. Cyclists can control both variables in the power-to-weight equation. Training can boost power output, measured in watts. They can also lose weight to improve their power-to-weight ratio. Naturally, any given rider has limits for both variables. The best professionals are extremely efficient in their power production and astonishingly lean. It would be a tall order for someone like Reijnen to gain 20 kilograms without compromising their power output.

Croom is uniquely suited to the challenge, having found cycling late in life after playing football in his younger years and at times weighing close to 136 kilograms. Though he slimmed down to about 90, he’d never be suited for road cycling. Track cycling, on the other hand, was a good fit. Since track events are held on a flat, 250-meter track, weight can be sacrificed at the expense of raw power.

Ashton Lambie is another hopeful on American Magic’s power team who never quite fit cycling’s mold. This mustachioed Nebraskan holds the record for the fastest ride across the state of Kansas. He’s also the only human to ever ride the 4 km track pursuit event in under four minutes.

The riders you might see on television at the Tour de France are not going to be aboard an AC75 in Barcelona. Similarly, the athletes who have been recruited to pedal the cyclors aren’t ready to ride on day one, despite their extensive backgrounds in cycling. Intense training is underway to prepare them for the demands of an America’s Cup race.

“There are periods where we spend time focusing more on endurance or strength development,” Day says. “At other times, we’re working more around the high-intensity phases.”

While American Magic has been mum about the specifics of the training and the AC75’s power demands, Croom has posted many of his recent workouts and training rides on Strava, an online activity tracker.

Croom has done extensive endurance work, already logging weekly rides longer than 80 miles in January. He’s also been completing viciously intense interval workouts to build his body’s tolerance for maximum efforts. For example, he was able to hold 371 watts for 20 minutes in one such workout. Simply a statistic, right? I’ve been racing bikes for the last 25 years, and at my best, I can hold 302 watts for 20 minutes. Someone without training or experience would do well to maintain just half of Croom’s wattage.

While the training and performance of these new crewmembers are opaque, the technical details of the AC75 are practically impenetrable. American Magic’s spokespeople and crew did not answer specific questions about how the hydraulic power system works, but what we do know is that the boat has a hydraulic accumulator tank, which stores pressure generated by the cyclors. The crew uses a hydraulic actuator to convert the tank’s pressure into force, which in turn powers the boat’s controls. Any time the boat needs to tack, jibe or simply trim a sail, power is needed.

Sources indicate that the hydraulic accumulator results in a very unusual feel at the pedals for the power team. It’s also believed that as the tank gets full, the effort to add more pressure to the accumulator becomes harder.

“We can change the different inputs to the system,” James Wright, of the American Magic power team, told the America’s Cup Recon Unit, which monitors and reports on the team’s developments. “The different power demands necessitate different inputs from us on our side. The system kind of auto-adjusts depending on the demands from the sails and, of course, what we can give it.”

It’s easy to imagine how the team might strategize its efforts, given the intensity of a 20- to 30-minute America’s Cup race and the essentially limitless power demands of the boat. They might attempt to keep the tank as low as possible with steady, moderate pedaling, and then fill it as fast as possible with maximum effort ahead of a demanding maneuver like a tack. Perhaps some of the four riders would be specifically reserved for all-out efforts to fill the tank on demand, while others would ride steadily to feed power to minor adjustments.

Whatever the strategy, it is clear that the entire crew needs to be in lock-step during a race. “When we talk about the sailing team, we consider the power team part of a sailing team; they have to work in cohesion,” Day says. “The afterguard will request efforts from the guys as they trim the boat, and they’ll learn what they can deliver in terms of power. And the guys will give it their all to deliver what’s asked of them. So, there must be solid cohesion between the two groups; ultimately, we are one team.”

Clearly, the sailors, engineers and coaches are working furiously to optimize the use of the cyclors. There is another area of the sport that has some catching up to do, and that is World Cycling’s anti-doping controls. Even the casual cycling fan is aware that performance-­enhancing drugs have long tarnished the sport’s reputation. Given the massive physiological demands placed on the AC75’s power team, the sport’s governing body, World Sailing, would be wise to heed the lessons of cycling’s past.

In the wake of a major doping scandal about 10 years ago, cycling began rigorously testing athletes out of competition because it was found riders could achieve huge performance gains by doping for training and then cleaning up in time for in-competition controls at races. It stands to reason that this is a major liability for the America’s Cup, given the amount of run-up that the teams have to train for the 2024 event.

Although World Sailing conducted 186 in-competition tests between 2020 and 2022, including anti-doping ­controls at the last America’s Cup, it did not conduct any out-of-­competition controls during those three years. To ramp up efforts for the 2024 Cup, World Sailing brought on Vasi Naidoo as its director of legal and governance. Naidoo has experience with anti-doping efforts at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, and she served on the Ethics Commission at the UCI, cycling’s international governing body. World Sailing confirmed that there will be out-of-­competition anti-doping tests in 2023, and the testing will include America’s Cup athletes.

Fortunately, on the whole, the interplay between cycling and sailing—two unlikely ­bedfellows—has resulted in a fascinating exchange of technology and science. “The transition to cyclors allows a tech-forward, applied-­sciences sport to pull in a completely separate sport and borrow technology from it,” says Reijnen, who himself is an accomplished sailor, having finished the WA360 event sailed out of Port Townsend, Washington, in 2021. “What does sailing borrow from cycling, but what does cycling then borrow from sailing?”

Even at the person-to-person level, this exchange of information and experiences has been rapid and, in fact, quite cordial.

“The coolest part about being part of this team is that I came into this group of sailors so new and so green,” Croom says. “And they were super-­welcoming, understanding, and trying to get me to learn as quickly as possible. Like, any questions I had, there was no such thing as a dumb question, and that was something special.”

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America’s Cup training bases like that of the New York YC’s American Magic, are nothing fancy, but behind the curtained walls and inside modified shipping containers and mobile offices are vibrant centers of innovation, high-level sports training facilities, sophisticated workshops, technological research facilities and boatyards. Here, the work is mostly dirty and determined, yet the mission is clear: win the America’s Cup.

There are, of course, hundreds of moving parts that must be coordinated with a precision that any rank of military brass would appreciate, especially when the entire operation is wrapped, packed and shifted to Barcelona early this summer. Like every America’s Cup team dating back to the first defense in 1870, the goal in Pensacola is to create a fast boat and prepare a skilled crew. The specifics of design technology, construction and tactical gambits are closely guarded secrets because often the smallest innovation can make the difference between victory and defeat. This much was reinforced during a recent visit with American Magic where the attitude of the team and the long to-do lists loomed large.  Terry Hutchinson is the team’s skipper and head of the sailing team.  He will not be sailing on the boat for this Cup, but is involved of every aspect of the program.  

Veteran America’s Cup designer, Scott Ferguson, is overseeing the work of a 30-member design team, which includes, Len Imas, Pete Melvin and Britt Ward, all experienced America’s Cup hands. The design group was able to dive deep into the analytics of Patriot, American Magic’s AC75 which famously crashed and capsized in Auckland. The second-generation AC75 hulls for Barcelona in 2024 will be about 1,000 kilograms lighter and the number of crew is reduced from eleven to eight. Winch grinders are replaced by cyclists who will pedal to make hydraulic power, which is used to trim the sails and operate several foil components. The boat itself is filled with a maze of wires, lines, and hydraulic tubes that spread like veins throughout the boat.

The hull must be strong to withstand heavy loads when sailing at high speeds (over 50 knots at times) and yet light enough for fast takeoff. It is a tricky balance to keep the boat on its foils throughout the entire race, especially given how difficult it is to take off in winds less than 8 knots.

Creating the correct foil package, therefore, is one of the most important tasks of the design team. The loads on the foils are tremendous. Barcelona features choppy waves that will add more strain when foiling. Over the next several months, every team will experiment with up to four different foil designs on their AC40s or prototypes. Each team will be allowed to only race with one foil design. It can’t be changed once the competition starts. There are many design factors to consider: Should the foils be allowed to bend? Longer foils are easier to lift the boat out of the water, but slower once the boat is foiling. There are a variety of endplates to consider, and the flaps that control the “flight” must work easily and reliably. I noticed a smooth carbon fiber skin on the foil blade, there are no creases in the joints, and everything is beautifully engineered. I was told the final foil design package will take about three months to build.

The sailors will be able to choose different headsails and mainsails on race days depending on the wind strength and sea state. The mainsail shape changes dramatically during every maneuver—remember there are two “skins” and each one can be manipulated independently. The mainsail has no boom and is trimmed right down to the deck. The headsail is basically a self-tacking jib. With the apparent wind so far forward there is no need to set a Code Zero or spinnaker. Instead, the crews will have four headsails to choose from on race day. The jib luff is wrapped around the headstay and attached using a zipper, which makes for a clean entry. In the last campaign, I’m told, it took seven weeks to receive a new batten from a commercial supplier. Now, all battens are made in-house using an autoclave and the build window is down to four days.

Spreading the Manpower

Four crew will work from each hull, with no crew shifting sides, as we witnessed in New Zealand during the 2021 match. Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison are slated to be the helmsmen for American Magic. Both are Olympic gold medalists and veterans of the America’s Cup.  Slingsby was the strategist aboard Oracle Team USA during the amazing comeback in 2013. He has been a standout in the SailGP series. They will serve as tactician when they are not steering. This routine worked well for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in 2021.  The helmsmen steers with a small wheel, which has a series of buttons that control trim. The helmsman has small monitors to see images from the bow and the numbers of a multitude of displays. One crewmember spends time as the flight controller and a fourth crew is the designated trimmer. Four additional crew (two on each side) are strictly cyclists keeping the power flowing. The cyclists do get short rest periods during the race when the power is at full capacity, but the cyclists work with a specific trainer to build their strength and stamina. Olympic Laser sailor and 2006 Intercollegiate Sailor of the Year, Andrew Campbell, is the flight controller. Two Americans, Riley Gibbs and Michael Menninger, have joined the team and are regularly on the water.

The afterguard works closely with the coaching staff.  Veteran Cup sailors and coaches Sean Clarkson and Tom Burnham analyze every function of the day.  They observe on-the-water testing and practice from a coach boat powered by four 450 hp outboard engines. The high-speed tender can attain a speed of 62 knots and can easily pull the AC75 out of the water to get it on its foils when the wind is light.

All the instruments on the raceboat are replicated on the coach boat.  Goodison speaks on a microphone and his voice can be clearly heard by the coaches. There is constant dialog between all parties. The tender operation is impressively efficient. Every action is carefully choreographed so there are no accidents. It is noticeable that everyone is physically fit as they move sails and operate the boat.

Pensacola has proven to be a good venue providing a lot of sailing time—smooth water in the bay and choppier waters out in the Gulf of Mexico help the team test in different wave conditions—but much more is being gleaned in the top-secret simulator. American Magic’s simulator is managed by Anderson Reggio and Brad Gilreath. The steering station replicates the system on the AC75, and here the sailors can spend time racing, practicing maneuvers, working on boatspeed elements, sailing in every conceivable weather condition, practicing starts, watching the screens, instruments, and the wind on the water. Simulators are used effectively by astronauts, aircraft pilots, ship captains, and race car drivers and now these sailors.

I was given the opportunity to spend about 30 minutes in the simulator and worked up a good sweat in the process. It was also great fun and remarkably close to feeling as if I was on the water.

As of this writing every team will be experimenting and training with their AC40 yachts, including American Magic which took possession of theirs after an industrious winter training block concluded in February with Patriot. The lessons learned and information gleaned will be scaled up for the larger seventy five-foot yachts when they are launched late this year. It is difficult to forecast which team will prevail in 2024, but American Magic looks like a stronger team than we watched in 2021.  

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As the 37th America’s Cup inches closer to the first races of the October 2024 match, the coming months will see accelerated activity the camps of defender and challengers alike, the latter of which has now grown to five with the New Year’s announcement of a French challenge that will compete under the burgee of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez.

The K-Challenge Racing team is led by Stephane Kandler and Bruno Dubois, both veterans of the Cup and professional sailing team management. K-Challenge last campaigned for the Cup in 2007 in Valencia as Areva Challenge, where it was eliminated in the Louis Vuitton Cup’s semifinals.

According to an America’s Cup statement earlier this week, the French challenger was accepted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in 2022, presumably during the “Entry Period,” but the announcement was delayed while the challenger got its house in order. More details regarding the personnel and sponsors are forthcoming. “We have been working behind the scenes for almost a year now and we are going to announce great things by the end of this month,” said Kandler, the team’s CEO.

“It is great to have the French now back in the America’s Cup as the 5th Challenger,” said Grant Dalton, CEO of AC37 Event Limited Grant Dalton, “and one that will no doubt bring a lot of typical character and flair to what is lining up to be a stunning event in Barcelona. France is such a prominent sailing nation but despite this, it is not a small undertaking to get an America’s Cup team up and running so I congratulate Stephane, Bruno and the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez who have been working away tirelessly to get to this point.”

While the four active challengers of Alinghi, INEOS, Luna Rossa and American Magic are well down their sailing and development paths, the French challenger is expected to pull from the talent of the French SailGP squad. As a “New Competitor” under the Protocol, K-Challenge has already missed the opportunity granted to such new teams to sail a Version 1 (legacy) AC75 in 2022 (like Alinghi Red Bull Racing), and with its late entry, the French team would be assigned the last remaining Barcelona base area, located on the outskirts of the port and outside the America’s Cup Village proper.

The original story has been updated to correct an error regarding K-Challenge’s participation in the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia.

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