Cup Spy: American Magic launch and tow test their AC75 Patriot in Pensacola
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 12 Oct 2022 13:49 AEDT
12 October 2022
American Magic's AC75 Patriot at its base in Pensacola - October 2022 © Paul Todd/America's Cup
New York Yacht Club's American Magic have successfully launched and completed tow testing and other checks on their AC75 Patriot, ahead of starting sailing and testing from their base in Pensacola.
"Today was Day 1 for Patriot," said President of Sailing Operations, Terry Hutchinson, after the six-hour tow testing session.
"It's great to be back out in the water. The team's been working hard for a half a year to make this thing happen. As you know with any of these boats you have to cycle through a fair amount of systems inside the yacht and make sure that everything's working.
We have to check the boxes to make sure that when we go sailing in the future that the boat is operational and it's safe. And that the sailors can go out on Day 1 and sail hard. You have no throttle on this boat. It's all on. Or it's off.
Hutchinson said: "What you saw today was consistent with commissioning complicated monohulls - the [software] programming team got some of the kinks ironed out of the software, and once that was done the crew took it in turn at flying the boat."
On the second trip up the bay, Patriot looked a little less stable than previously. Hutchinson put this down to "some sequencing issues inside the code. It was no more complicated than that. And the guys are working through it - that's part of the reason that were out there today."
The AC37 Joint Recon team is working in Pensacola with long-time America's Cup photographer Paul Todd covering the team's every move outside the shed for the Recon program.