The American Magic team’s revamped AC75 Patriot, capsized during a training session after they hit debris in Pensacola Bay.
After an almost perfect day in terms of manoeuvres, with Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison putting in a total of 34 manoeuvres with some astonishing, sit-up-and-take-notice, success rates, Patriot hit debris in Pensacola Bay, stalling and plopping over.
There were no breakages onboard and all crew are safe and well.
The superb American Magic shore crew raced in, set the tow line and performed their well-practised drill to right Patriot and she was towed back to base in displacement mode for a thorough check-over.
It was the end of a near two-hour session on the water trialling their new rudder – an old one from Auckland 2021 that was undeclared – and the numbers don’t lie. In total, 17 tacks were thrown in, with 16 fully foil-to-foil – a 94% success rate and just one debatable ‘touch and go’.
On the gybes, the team were sublime – 17 thrown in and 17 fully foil-to-foil. You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out the success rate.
Roll-overs are meat and potatoes to the crews in this America’s Cup and the low-speed, downspeed ones are more of an inconvenience than catastrophe – dramatic as they look to the outside world.
Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and President of Sailing Operations at the New York Yacht Club American Magic syndicate explained:
“They were going upwind on starboard tack and they hit a submerged board. As we know here in Pensacola when it rains a lot, things flow out of the rivers and they basically hit a ‘log’ in the water, it stalled the boat and the boat rolled over to windward so no harm to anybody, Patriot is upright and coming back in and we’ll haul her out and get her ready to go out again tomorrow.”
Onboard Today:
Helms: Tom Slingsby / Paul Goodison
Trimmers: Riley Gibbs
Flight Control: Andrew Campbell
Power Group: Colton Hall / Madison / Ethan / Lucas Calabrese
Sails Used:
M1 (AM-MN9): 2 hours 18 minutes
J3 (J3-6): 1 hour 53 minutes
Conditions: (PM) 14-17 knots from South, Sunny, 75 degrees, waves: 1-2ft
Windspeed was measured using a handheld anemometer approximately 8 feet above sea level. 12:07 S 14k-17k/ 12:49 S 13k/ 13:18 S 10k/ 13:41 S 11k/ 14:13 S 14k-17k
Dock-Out: 11.56pm Dock-in: 4.00pm
Total Tacks: 17 – 16 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go
Total Gybes: 17 – 17 foil-to-foil
