Representing the prestigious New York Yacht Club, the NYYC American Magic Team today became the second team to sail at the 37th America’s Cup venue with the successful launch of their new AC40 that was delivered ahead of the arrival of the team’s full complement of boats that is making its way across the Atlantic from their winter training base in Pensacola, Florida.
Chrissy Lamond, the wife of NYYC American Magic’s Chief Operating Officer, Tyson Lamond, officially christened the eighth AC40 in the fleet ‘Magic’ at a dockside ceremony and once some inclement weather cleared from the day before, the sailors took to the water for their first official sail.
Tom Burnham, the Team Coach summed up this significant milestone in the NYYC American Magic campaign saying: “It's great to be here in Barcelona, and it was really nice to get out on the water with our AC40 Boat2 ‘Magic’…and it was really great good day today…There was a decent sea state, it was really big yesterday, and it was definitely still pretty big today and it was different, it's definitely a new challenge and something that we're all going to have to get used to, so it's definitely worth being here to check it out.”
All around the Port Vell in Barcelona, the six teams competing for the 37th America’s Cup have been busy constructing their bases and readying themselves for what promises to be an intense sailing and training schedule ahead of the first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú in September. Boats and teams will be arriving in Barcelona in the coming weeks and spectators will see multiple foiling yachts sailing on the crystal waters just off the busy Barcelona beachfront throughout the summer months.
The NYYC American Magic team are based at the MB92 dockyard on the southern side of the port within easy reach of the La Barcelonetta beachfront, near the promontory of the W-Hotel and directly opposite the World Trade Centre. Two large, dockside hangars have been erected to house the team’s equipment as their base now for the rest of the campaign through to the start of the Challenger Selection Series in August & September 2024.
Tom Burnham praised the huge team effort that has gone into creating the base saying: “The team has been working super hard for the last few months. There’s been a big group of people over here for a while, and they've been working really hard, and the base is really coming together. It's taken a while, it's definitely a lot of work but the nice thing is, now we're here, it's our home for the next 16 months so it's pretty exciting to be here and start operating out of our permanent base for the rest of the way through the Cup. It’s going to be really good.”
And speaking about how the team are settling into their new life in Barcelona, Tom Burnham added: “Everybody is really loving it. It's been great. It's a good atmosphere, a lot of nice people in Barcelona super friendly, helpful…it's been a good experience so far.”
The NYYC American Magic team will shortly be fully operational with two AC40s plus their much-modified AC75 ‘Patriot’ that is on its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Tom Burnham was certainly speaking for the team when he commented: “There's going to be a bunch of two-boat sailing with the AC40s through into the Fall when we're leading up into the first World Series event in Villanova i La Geltrú and then, later in the year, we'll get into sailing ‘Patriot’ in Barcelona which will be really exciting to have a big boat out sailing here. But we’ll be focusing on the two boat AC40 programme for a couple of months to really get into some racing practice and it's the fun part of the programme where we get to do a bunch of race practise with two boats against each other - it's going to be exciting; we're looking forward to it.”
Barcelona is ready to welcome the world at the 37th America’s Cup and Grant Dalton, CEO of America’s Cup Events commented: “Seeing the NYYC American Magic team on the water and operational is another great milestone for the America’s Cup. All credit to the team, the Port Authority and the event management in getting the bases operational so quickly – they have literally sprung up all around the Port Vell area in double-quick time. We expect all teams to be onsite and fully operational by August and it’s terrific to see another team out on the water training and testing for what promises to be a defining period in all the teams’ training schedules.”
Spectators around the beachfront will be able to see the boats training and testing just metres off the shoreline where the actual racecourse for the 37th America’s Cup, the Challenger Selection Series plus the Youth and the inaugural PUIG Women’s America’s Cup, will be contested.