Posted on 9/7/2020
New York Yacht Club American Magic, U.S. Challenger for the 36th America's Cup, completed a milestone five-hour sailing session on Auckland's Waitematā Harbour on July 27. The team's AC75 racing yacht, Defiant, had been dormant since concluding its final training day at the team's winter base in Pensacola, Florida in early March.
A combination of cancelled America’s Cup World Series events in Europe, the team’s COVID-19 safety precautions in Pensacola and a 9,000+ mile ocean journey to New Zealand kept the team on shore for nearly five months. While logistics, design work, the production of American Magic’s second AC75 and other projects kept the 145+ person Challenger busy, a return to sailing w...