Despite myriad Covid-related challenges faced by 2021’s America’s Cup teams, The New York Yacht Club’s American Magic announced an exciting step forward today; Patriot, their second AC75, has left the shed for the first time since arriving in Auckland. Over a year ago, the team’s original AC75, Defiant, was the first AC75 to foil and has since logged thousands of miles in three different venues to collect data for refining the design for Patriot. As of yesterday, Defiant has been decommissioned and all hands are on deck for getting Patriot race-ready.
“This whole America’s Cup cycle has been very unique in that we won’t race another boat until December [at ACWS Auckland],” says helmsman Dean Barker, in reference to two cancelled European America’s Cup World Series regattas in Cagliari, Italy, and Portsmouth, U.K. Between closed borders, workplace restrictions and cancelled events, Covid has wreaked havoc on the preparations for all teams.
The boat will continue to undergo tweaks and fine-tuning until racing for the Prada Cup begins in January. “There are still plenty of gains on the table. We have to keep chipping away at those and hope we are as good as we can be by the time we start racing,” Barker says.
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October 2020
