Terry Hutchinson, the highly experienced Skipper and President of Operations for New York Yacht Club American Magic, speaks to METSTRADE about the transferable benefits of emerging technologies and growing the skills necessary to exploit them.

Hutchinson is widely recognised as one of the most accomplished US professional sailors in his nation’s long history of competitive sailing. Twice named US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, he has participated in six America’s Cup Campaigns including this year’s edition and has won 17 world championships in the Farr 40, IMS, J/24, TP 52 classes in addition to the Maxi 72, and Maxi Class. 

Under his leadership American Magic has achieved impressive progress in only its second America’s Cup. As we completed this article the team is in the final stage of preparation for the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series in Barcelona which commences on 29 August. 

Even while it focuses on competing, American Magic has also secured local government support from to establish a high-performance sailing centre at the Port of Pensacola in Florida. This 7400m2 cutting-edge facility and marina will serve as its headquarters for designing, building, hosting regattas, with adjacent waters being perfect for yacht testing and developing the current and next generation of America's Cup, Olympic, and international sailors. The facility will eventually support all American Magic’s operations, including R&D, maintenance, repair, boat storage, office and training facilities. It will also provide a springboard to attract and train the next generations of sailors, engineers, designers and support staff.

Pivotal to competition and business success are the people involved. Terry Hutchinson is acknowledged by his peers as a proven master in forming and managing the multi-disciplined shore and on-water teams required for any successful campaign. METSTRADE’s  Breakfast Briefing audience on 19 November can look forward to Terry explaining more about the transferable lessons his team wants to share in the wake of this year’s America’s Cup campaign.

Working with future talent today
“All the things that go into a successful America’s Cup team apply to a lot of different areas of our sport,” Hutchinson states. “Taking what we learn and transferring it over is a massive win for the marine industry, as is the work we are doing on careers and educational development. 

“Within the America’s Cup series, we’ve seen major changes in technology. The move from traditional monohull designs after the 32nd edition in Valencia (first to multihulls and then foilers) sucked away an entire industry and will have significantly affected 1500 people that were involved in that regatta. We want to play our part in rebuilding the skills required to work with the latest technologies.

“American Magic has a good blend of grey haired and younger team members – the older and more experienced people help our inexperienced but incredibly smart youngsters. In 20 years’ time, when our children are trying to win the America’s Cup, I believe they’re going to be much further along.

“When you hire younger people, you think they might not have a lot of experience. You often find something quite different – that they do have a lot of experience and are good at what they do, such as Harry Melges (who sails in the American Magic youth team), or Helena Scutt (who has a Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics) and BS in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University). I see that the younger generation are much further advanced than some of the older team members in areas such as computers and mechatronics. That creates a lot of optimism for the future.”

Adjusting to a high-performance environment
You do however need a complete mind shift when entering a cutting-edge technology high performance team like American Magic, as Terry explains: “When people come into something like this, they don’t recognise how hard it is, and they quickly realise the glamour of the America’s Cup is not very glamorous at all. It's a lot of work. The reason it’s hard to win is because it’s a hard event, takes a lot of time and is very taxing on team members and on their families. That transition is a hard thing for anybody, whether you’re 25 years old or 55. 

“My first America’s Cup was with AmericaOne for the 30th edition in 2000. I was hired to be a strategist, spare helmsman and the tuning helmsman. I ended up trimming the main. I can remember at the time I was disappointed to end up doing a job on the boat that I had never really done before. I felt exposed because it wasn’t in my wheelhouse of expertise. Reflecting though, it was the best thing that could have ever happened because I got to learn about a different side of the boat, the jobs that make the boat efficient and what makes it run well. And I got to do all the racing.

“An experience like that provides me with the ability to communicate with young team members who come in here that are excellent sailors, perhaps won Olympic medals, but might not end up on the race boat.

“My job as a mentor with the younger people in our team is to help in the areas where they maybe lack experience and perhaps don’t always understand how to prioritise or recognise that we cannot do everything. There’s so much you need to know outside of the actual sailing such as managing the boat, the platform, the chase boat, the people, the time that the boat goes off the dock, the hoisting and so on. The key is not to screw it up because of a mistake through pressure or inexperience.

“But it doesn’t take much to show them the way that you want them to go. From a smart perspective, it’s then probably best to stand aside and not get in the way!”

Transferable skills and technologies
“Our high-performance training centre in Pensacola offers an awesome opportunity to continue not only our racing, but also to evolve the marine trade inside the United States and help reestablish our country as leaders in yacht engineering and design, to construction and manufacturing, to sailmaking and shore teams.
“A lot of the systems inside the America’s Cup yachts such as the logic and computer programming is directly applicable to other boats that we’re racing. We use it on the Maxi 74 Bella Mente and on the Quantum Racing TP52. It helps to make these boats easier to sail. 

I can easily envision a scenario where we use our knowledge of sailing simulators to develop programs for marine sailboat and powerboat manufacturers. Once you have the physics captured, it would be easy with powerboats particularly to have your own training simulator with a wheel on the desktop at home. You could enable prospective owners to experience how to dock their specific model of boat in a cross breeze. That way we can educate customers before they even go out on the water.

Many other technologies are also directly transferable to wider use, such as the battery technologies used to power the boat, our understanding of high-performance sailing rig and structure loading, and machine-based learning to name a few areas.

Take Cole Brauer who sailed around the world in 130 days by herself in an Open 40. She did it all with batteries and an autopilot. That speaks volumes about the technology that’s coming available to the mainstream now. 

You’re never going to burden a traditional sailboat or powerboat with the same amount of power that we’re requiring to move boards and rotate masts and things like that. You are putting it in a much safer working space. Taking these kinds of technologies and transferring them over is a massive win for the marine industry.