MAGIC MOMENTS

ANDI ROBERTSON travelled to Florida to get an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour with the USA’s America’s Cup Challenger

- ANDI ROBERTSON

Last winter, as New York Yacht Club’s American Magic America’s Cup team put its 38ft(11.6m) half-sized test horse ‘The Mule’ through its paces, I watched in awe. The location was not important at all. Pensacola, Florida? Must be near Disneyland… When the invitation came from Helly Hansen (official apparel partner to the team) to fly there and go behind the scenes at the base, I very quickly learned that Pensacola is the westernmost town on the Florida ‘panhandle’, just 200 miles east of New Orleans, home to a US Naval base. The appeal for sailing is reasonably reliable winter breezes, reasonable climate and immediate access to deep, sheltered water. The American Magic winter base itself is a relatively unprepossessing compound assembled from containers around a temporary structure in the heart of the commercial port. Each 40ft container houses a different department: R&D, simulation, admin, technical, aero and catering. When the base travels, it is all repeatable and everyone feels equally at home. When I visited, there was just over six weeks to long-awaited first America’s Cup World Series regatta, which had been due to take place late April in Sardinia. Every member of the team was eagerly anticipating the first-ever line-up of the four new AC75s in Cagliari. Not only would it answer ‘are we fast or slow?’, it would provide informed ideas on foils and rig set-up and operation, and influence choices for boat two, the boats that will race in the Cup itself. But with the cancellation of that regatta and now June’s Portsmouth event too, the teams are left waiting or having to push on with their choices in isolation.

TEAM TALK