NYYC American Magic AC40-5 Day 18 Summary

Setting out into dense Pensacola midday fog, the NYYC American Magic Team had a clear focus today (Tuesday) to push their new starboard foil outside of the comfort zone and start imagining real-life race scenarios that the team will face in the upcoming pre-regattas later this year. Much attention was being paid, in relatively marginal conditions, to stalling out ‘America’ by dropping to the bustle and then re-powering on quickly and that transition from low to high power was perhaps more of a sail trim and crew positioning exercise than anything foil driven. Late in the afternoon, ‘America’ stopped and sent a diver down to inspect the starboard foil arm with crew members seen pointing at and inspecting the patch where it’s presumed the innovative actuator is housed and speaking afterward David Oliver a member of the American Magic design team gave little away but did say: “We were just assessing the condition of the boat, you know they're complex machines and we have to be sure we're on top of all the maintenance, everything going on inside the boat and outside and so if anything potentially looks out of the ordinary we always want to make sure we're doing a full assessment to avoid any bigger problems down the road .” Section 41. Reconnaissance a) As a campaign cost reduction measure, COR/D has mutually agreed to cooperatively implement a centralised reconnaissance programme for all teams for the reconnaissance of all Competitors’ AC75 Yachts, AC40 Yachts and LEQ12 yachts including both on-land and on-water imagery (the “Joint Recon Programme”). b) Each team is assigned a two-person Recon Unit to follow their every on-water move, but it's not that simple. The cameras are supplied and identical for all Recon Units. Drones are not allowed, and they can't get that close, plus following a boat and keeping a camera steady at 45 knots isn't that easy to begin with. c) A three minute interview follows each on water day, and teams must answer the Recon Unit's questions while trying not to give too much away. It's a raw, unedited view of the never before seen behind-the-scenes development of a team and their boat to win the oldest trophy in international sports. #AC37Recon #AmericasCup #Barcelona2024