New York Yacht Club American Magic Faces Setback on Day Three of Preliminary Regatta

Day three of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta was a cruel disappointment for NYYC American Magic. An issue aboard ‘Patriot’ during the prestart forced the team to withdraw from their match against France’s Orient Express Racing Team.

The day started with promise as Patriot entered the start box on time in a steady 11-13 knot southerly breeze. The crew was preparing for a jousting session with the French when, shortly after a tack back towards the line, a loud bang resonated through the boat that caused both helmsmen – Tom Slingsby on starboard and Paul Goodison on port – to turn their heads around to the back of the yacht.

While the cause of the issue was not yet identified, the American crew fought to control their boat as it hobby-horsed briefly before dropping off its foils. After a few minutes spent trying to assess if the issue could be remedied quickly, the team made the agonizing decision to retire from the race, leaving the French team to cross the start line unchallenged and claim the single point on offer.

Reflecting on the day's challenges, Terry Hutchinson stated:

"It is a frustrating day for American Magic here in Barcelona. As always, we're balancing the reliability of our race shot and performance. And so when we have an issue with some of the equipment and developing that reliability, we have to take a good, hard look at it through the program, we continue to reinforce that, that methodology of checking the systems and going through the boat and making sure that everything is as reliable and as performance-oriented as possible.
And so when we, you know, give up a day and a race to the yacht not working properly or with the sailors, we always go straight to the root cause and get a good understanding of what the issue is.
We'll let the engineers get to work. We have a big day up against Team New Zealand tomorrow, so we have to get on to the next play, and at the same time, we need to understand what failed and why."

After three days of racing, NYYC American Magic is in third place with two wins from four races. The team now looks ahead to its final race of the regatta, where it will face the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, in the day's first match.