American Magic ready for Prada America's Cup World Series

Auckland, New Zealand - New York Yacht Club American Magic, the U.S. Challenger for the 36th America’s Cup, is set to compete in the first official AC75 class regattas during the Prada America’s Cup World Series Auckland and the Christmas Race. These two events involve four combined days of racing starting on Thursday. ACWS Auckland will run from December 17-19, New Zealand time (December 16-18, U.S. time), with the Christmas Race taking place on December 20 (December 19, U.S. time).

When America’s Cup competitor entries opened on January 1, 2018, the New York Yacht Club submitted notice of its challenge to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron just a few seconds later. 1,081 days, three training venues, one test boat and two full-fledged AC75’s later, American Magic will now have a chance to compete against two strong Challengers and the Defender of the America’s Cup on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbor.

“We’re finally here, racing is tomorrow, and it seems like yesterday that we started on this adventure,” said Team Principal and CEO Hap Fauth in a full team meeting. “Thank you all for your blood, sweat, and long days, weeks and months coming down the stretch. Treat tomorrow’s racing as ‘business as usual.’ I am so proud of all of you.”

ACWS Auckland comes after the two prior exhibition events, ACWS Cagliari and ACWS Portsmouth, were canceled due to COVID-19. The lack of official AC75 racing since the inception of the class has drastically reduced the chances for teams to measure themselves against each other. In Auckland this week, all of that will change.

“In terms of not having the opportunity to race in Cagliari and Portsmouth, from the systems that go inside the boat, to the media [camera setup onboard the boats], to the race committee, we all are probably a bit on the back foot,” said Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and Executive Director of American Magic. 

Despite the new Cup class and the many new technologies implemented into the race management program for Auckland, Hutchinson said one thing that stood out to him was the quality of the competition.