NYYC American Magic: excellence, determination and passion

Representing the New York Yacht Club in the America’s Cup comes with a huge amount of responsibility and a serious weight of expectation. The most famous yacht club in the world, the architects of ‘America’s Cup,’ is an elite organisation built on excellence and a reputation that is peerless. Standing on the shoulders of the giants of the sport, the club’s glittering Cup roster includes names that both inspire and enthral for legendary endeavour.

The America’s Cup is a richer place with the New York Yacht Club's involvement so when the members of the famous West 44th Street Clubhouse rounded their support behind American Magic ahead of the 2021 campaign, it was a welcome inclusion.

Going one step further in 2024 with the renamed ‘NYYC American Magic’ confirmed the club’s seat firmly at the top table with an outstanding organisation from top to bottom and a very real prospect of success.

Sadly, that prospect was extinguished on September 19 after a thrilling semi-final against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the white-hot cauldron of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Such was the level in 2024 that even the most well-funded and supported, fell by the wayside.

This had been a continuity challenge. One that never stopped since the heart-breaking capsize and near-sinking in 2021 that ended what was deemed to be a potent challenge for the Cup with a very fast boat. Undeterred and with outstanding leadership shown by Terry Hutchinson, along with the superb backing and vision of Doug de Vos and Hap Fauth, NYYC American Magic were quick to appoint, in August 2021, Scott Ferguson as Design Co-Ordinator.

Immediately the complex design work started as the team started to pull apart the details of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Protocol. In January 2022, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron confirmed the American syndicate's challenge as the third formally accepted for the event.

With the design, shore, technical, and administrative teams coming together quickly – many returning from the Auckland campaign in 2021 – Hutchinson set about assembling the sailing team and picked a mix of emerging talent and experience. Paul Goodison, gold medallist and three-time International Moth World Champion was a key signing alongside Olympic bronze medallist Lucas Calabrese, Andrew Campbell, Michael Menninger, Riley Gibbs and Dan Morris.

The well-respected Tom Burnham came onboard as Team Coach and in March 2022, Hutchinson commented: “We are excited to announce this group of talented sailors. We are confident we are putting together a balanced team of experienced America’s Cup sailors with new blood to help American Magic accomplish this goal.”

The sailing roster, however, was about to get a huge boost with rumours circulating for months about the possible signing of the then World Sailor of the Year, Olympic gold medallist and double International Moth World Champion, Tom Slingsby.

Australian by nationality but with dual citizenship, the mercurial Slingsby was announced in May 2022 and his sense of excitement was matched by the enormity of task ahead of him: “I’m extremely excited to return to the America’s Cup arena. The AC75s are remarkable craft, and I look forward to doing whatever I can to help our team in their quest to bring the trophy back to the United States and the New York Yacht Club. We’ve got world-class talent onboard the boat and backing us on the shore, I’m proud and excited to be a part of it.”

With everything set, the next piece of the puzzle was confirmed a month later in June 2022 with Pensacola, Florida becoming the team’s home-venue. Later (in early 2024) the team would confirm the establishment of a high-performance sailing centre at the Port of Pensacola – a cutting-edge facility to serve as the team’s headquarters for designing, building, hosting regattas, and developing the current and next generation of America's Cup, Olympic, and international sailors.

By the middle of October 2022, the team relaunched ‘Patriot’ their warhorse AC75 from the Auckland campaign, and began testing at full scale, implementing systems and configuration changes almost weekly as they pushed the development enveloppe hard. Caught on recon, on windy days, ‘Patriot’ was hitting speeds unseen before, with the sailors and shore team growing in confidence.

The rest of the Cup world eyed their progress eagerly and it could even be argued that what NYYC American Magic began to achieve in their AC75 programme, arguably kick-started some of the other teams into full-scale sailing.

The campaign pushed forward through to the New Year in 2023 and at the beginning of March, the team took delivery of their first of two, AC40s and named her ‘America’ after the club’s most famous yacht that started it all in 1851. A second AC40 followed at the end of June 2023, christened ‘Magic’ – the name of the yacht that first defended the Cup in 1870.

By the time of the first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú in September 2023, NYYC American Magic were looking impressive and aced a tricky regatta, securing a one-point win in the series after an abandoned Match Race Final, but crucially scoring first blood, real momentum and creating a growing belief in their campaign.

Training continued in Barcelona with the team undertaking extensive two-boat match-race practice in the AC40s and bringing through the underlying talent of the likes of Harry Melges IV, Severin Gramm, Kyle Navin and Helena Scutt who, for sure, are all potential Cup stars of the future whilst the senior team rotated regularly to find the best combinations.

All was set for the second Preliminary Regatta in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but for a myriad of reasons, the team struggled and performed below par, by their own admission. Speaking at the beginning of December 2023, Terry Hutchinson, emphasized the importance of learning from both successes and setbacks: “Winning hides a lot of things and losing unfolds some of that. We will take a good, hard look at ourselves and understand what that means.”

The team bounced back strongly from the experience in Jeddah and doubled down on training through the winter in Barcelona, piquing interest on a daily basis as they pushed ever harder, whilst Brandon Linton’s build-team at the American Magic facility up in Portsmouth was well into the construction of a truly innovative AC75, with lines drawn by Britt Ward and Pete Melvin. In total, some 30 designers, CFD analysts, engineers, naval architects, and boatbuilders completed over 108,000 hours of design time, and 65,000 construction hours were dedicated to refining every aspect of the boat.

At the end of March 2024, the boat dubbed ‘B3’, was safely packed onto an Antonov cargo plane for its final delivery to Barcelona and immediately gossip sprung up around its radical nature. Those rumours were confirmed at the end of April 2024 with the boat being unveiled and revealing a low-profile scow bow and recumbent cyclor pods that significantly reduced aerodynamic drag.
Design co-ordinator Scott Ferguson highlighted the ambition saying: “We followed our own design path with Patriot as we pushed the limits of the AC75 rule while tailoring for the Barcelona venue. 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. There are trade-offs for every decision regarding performance, weight, energy, and forgiveness. The design team, together with the sailing, shore, and build teams, have developed what we feel is a strong package for competing at a high level here in Barcelona.”

After some impressive commissioning work, ‘Patriot’ was soon at full speed with Slingsby and Goodison pushing ever harder and Andrew Campbell and Mike Menninger emerging as the key trimmers and flight controllers. The Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta saw the team come out with early wins against INEOS Britannia and Alinghi Red Bull Racing before a loss to Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and then a breakdown ahead of the race with Orient Express Racing. On the final day, the American team bounced back and scored a brilliant, dominant race win against Emirates Team New Zealand.

By the end of the second Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup, momentum was draining from the sailors and an injury to Paul Goodison, who fractured five ribs during a post racing incident, meant a change of the afterguard configuration with Olympic medallist Lucas Calabrese stepping in. The team finished third overall with a win/loss ratio of 4/6 and with INEOS Britannia selecting to race Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the semi-finals, NYYC American Magic faced the speed and determination of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

What the greeted the Americans on the racetrack was immediate fire and brimstone from the Italian team on the opening two days of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final and the scoreline of 4-0 was certainly not reflective of how close the racing was, with NYYC American Magic ruing small handling errors that cost them possible race wins.

A comeback was always possible, and the tide began to turn on day three, ahead of a planned Reserve Day, when ‘Patriot’ eked a win in light conditions with the lower wind speed of 6.5 knots being tested at the start. What Tom Slingsby and Lucas Calabrese showed was a growing trust in their partnership and a feeling all around the team that the impossible could happen.

On the next race day, again in light airs, the Americans secured an opening win to take the series to 4-2 and then were the beneficiaries of a dramatic breakdown on Luna Rossa who damaged their mainsheet traveller system and were forced to retire.

At 4-3, everything was possible, but the American dream was extinguished ruthlessly on the final day with a repaired Luna Rossa coming out firing, acing the windshifts in a moderate breeze to close out a 61-second win that ended the NYYC American Magic Challenge.

Speaking afterwards, Terry Hutchinson reflected on the campaign, saying: “I think we’ve to go and take a good hard look at things that we did well and things that we didn't. We've got so many great people; plus we've got so many great assets and technologies inside American Magic that I don't think it's the end. The thing that we have to continue to do is figure out what we can do well and how we can improve this team. It’s a much better team than it was four years ago and look how we've evolved. It’s a lot of hard work and it's an incredible organisation with some incredibly passionate people.

“We've had a lot of support from the members of the New York Yacht Club and their engagement has been spectacular. Commodore Cross and Commodore Harrington have both been on site here, as well as some past Commodores, and we held an event here in Barcelona where Commodore Cross got choked up when he was speaking because that's how significant it is for the club and for the membership. Sure it's not everybody's cup of tea and that's okay, but it is a part of our club history and we are fortunate to have the club as a partner as New York Yacht Club’s presence helps perpetuate the value and allure of the America’s Cup.”

Race Director Iain Murray was full of praise for the NYYC American Magic challenge saying: “American Magic have come here with an incredibly powerful and professional group that clearly looked outside the design window – with the recumbent cyclors, a more extreme boat than others, very low profile, everything very driven by windage concerns.

"But they're a great team. They've sailed really well. The races have been incredible, but they’ve just been missing that little bit of speed and that is a difference between winning and losing America's Cup races. The loss of Paul Goodison off the boat at a critical time was the last thing they really needed and to have to reset and go into really tough races where every second counts was hard. Hopefully the New York Yacht Club, with their tradition and history in the America's Cup and the people behind American Magic continue, because they are a great team.”

The New York Yacht Club will be back at some point in the future. That is for certain as the club seeks to regain the most famous trophy in yachting and one that they held famously for 132 years. This time, in 2024, it was not to be, but what is being created in Pensacola by Doug de Vos and Hap Fauth, and the magnificent sailing squads that Terry Hutchinson assembled and corralled, are a cornerstone and marker for the future. The next generation is coming through fast with the NYYC American Magic Youth & Women’s teams demonstrating serious talent from top to bottom.

The quest to return the America’s Cup to West 44th street continues.