NYYC American Magic PATRIOT Day 24 Summary

Perception and reality – the two imposters of any America’s Cup campaign were on display out in Pensacola yesterday. Headlines could scream ‘capsize’ – and with Patriot we’ve been there spectacularly before – but the reality is that the team had an almost perfect day in terms of manoeuvres before hitting debris in Pensacola Bay, stalling and plopping over. Roll-overs are meat and potatoes to the crews in this America’s Cup and the low-speed, downspeed ones are more of an inconvenience than catastrophe – dramatic as they look to the outside world. To address the dramatic first, Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and President of Sailing Operations at the New York Yacht Club American Magic syndicate explained: “They were going upwind on starboard tack and they hit a submerged board. As we know here in Pensacola when it rains a lot, things flow out of the rivers and they basically hit a ‘log’ in the water, it stalled the boat and the boat rolled over to windward so no harm to anybody, Patriot is upright and coming back in and we’ll haul her out and get her ready to go out again tomorrow.” 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