Here is the full story on yesterday’s win – from American Magic’s website:
NYYC American Magic Clinches Win Against The Defender in Barcelona
NYYC American Magic’s final match of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta saw the team take on the AC36 Defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the first race on the schedule. In a change from the regatta’s previous three days of racing, the wind direction on the waters off Barcelona had shifted from the south to the east, producing a much choppier sea state than the teams had previously experienced.
- With the team fired up to bounce straight back from the unfortunate breakdown of the day before, ‘Patriot’ tore into the starting box from the starboard end before the Kiwi boat scorched across her bow after entering 10 seconds earlier on port.
After gybing and chasing the New Zealand boat out to the far right corner of the start box, American Magic tacked in front of the Kiwis and led them back towards the start line. With 45 seconds to go, Patriot was set up a couple of boat lengths ahead and to the left of New Zealand, who looked keen to push the US boat all the way to the line.
In the final seconds before the start gun, the boats were closely positioned, with NYYC American Magic in a strong position to leeward. Both crews sailed across the line and had to bear away sharply to return and start cleanly. Unable to live in such close proximity to windward of Patriot, the New Zealand crew immediately tacked away to the right. This left the US crew free to accelerate towards the left-hand boundary, where they tacked and headed back towards the middle of the course.
When the two boats converged, it was Patriot on port that crossed comfortably ahead by several boat lengths to take early control of the six-leg race. A little further up the beat, Tom Slingsby on Patriot’s starboard wheel called for a right mark rounding at the windward gate. The crew—helmsmen Slingsby and Paul Goodison, with trimmers Michael Menninger and Andrew Campbell—executed the rounding perfectly, turning downwind at a blistering speed to slingshot themselves down the first downwind leg, 15 seconds ahead of the 36th America’s Cup winners.
The Americans consolidated their advantage downwind through raw speed, smooth maneuvers, and tactical smarts, rounding the first leeward gate at the left-hand marker 19 seconds ahead of the chasing Kiwis. From there on, the rest of the heat was essentially a display from the team on how to protect a match race lead, with the Patriot crew remaining in full control throughout.
Despite the New Zealanders never giving up and always looking for a chance to get back in the hunt, at the finish, it was a solid victory for NYYC American Magic by a margin of 28 seconds—a strong and satisfying end to the four-day Preliminary Regatta in which the team placed third in the overall standings behind New Zealand and Italy.
Quotes:
Paul Goodison, port helm on ‘Patriot’ was pleased with the win: “It’s a different day again today, with a more pronounced easterly and a lot more waves than we’ve sailed in over the last couple of days. Lighter winds, which we’re expecting more of come the finals. We had a great day racing the defenders, who were unbeaten so far. They’re the class act at the moment, so they’ll never be easy. But we had a great race. We sailed really well, managed to get a good start, and then we kind of controlled the race from there. So it’s really positive, especially after the little disappointment yesterday.”
Skipper and President of Sailing operations at NYYC American Magic, Terry Hutchinson, came ashore happy with the win against Emirates Team New Zealand but laser-focused on the challenges ahead: “The way the guys sailed today was really consistent, and it was everything that we’ve been talking about, so we have an almost vertical learning curve of improvement in front of us which is really encouraging because you can see the potential of ‘Patriot’ and you can see the potential of our team. We’ve just got to keep chipping along and getting it all together. It’s hard not to be happy, but we still got third, so if you win a couple of battles but don’t win the war, you’ve got to keep the bigger picture in mind, and I think that’s what we will do.”