America's Cup 2021: 'We've got our work cut out' - American Magic skipper eyes rivals

Emirates Team New Zealand and American Magic. Photo / Supplied.

By Matt Brown

Things are starting to heat up on Auckland's Waitematā Harbour with the three America's Cup challengers in full swing with the development of their second boats that were launched last month.

American Magic have been up on the foils 11 times since launching Patriot on the October 16, while the INEOS Team UK boat Britannia has been out a handful of times since its launch a day later. Challenger of Record Luna Rossa, which launched its second boat on October 20, has only been out four times.

But already the Challengers are getting a gauge of how they are performing relative to each other; watching every move of their rivals from the flotilla of chase boats that accompany the Cup boats. And while they are not allowed to organise practice races as per the Cup protocol, American Magic skipper Terry Hutchinson says there have been some chance engagements on the water.

"The protocol rules out any kind of coordinated training but the boats can end up on the same racecourse. We have had a little bit of interaction with INEOS Team UK and Luna Rossa and both of their boats are very fast and you can see that we have our work cut out for us," Hutchinson remarked.

Emirates Team New Zealand and American Magic - Stadium Course - Waitemata Harbour - September 21, 2020. Photo / Supplied

But that doesn't mean Hutchinson is concerned his boat could be off the pace. The veteran skipper is thrilled with the job chief designer Marcelino Botin has done with Patriot and confirmed as expected she is faster than the challenger's first boat, Defiant.

"The performance improvement of what comes with Patriot is what was designed and expected. When you look across the Harbour and you see the evolution of the boats - INEOS and us had version one and the Defender and Challenger of Record had version two. Both our teams needed to go from version one to version three. The Challenger of Record and INEOS boats are very nice platforms and we will see the defender in a couple of weeks and you expect them to be equally impressive.

"I would say right now all three teams are very competitive. We've got our work cut out for us, and the other two [INEOS and Luna Rossa] are very slippery."

The Herald understands Team New Zealand's second boat will be launched on November 19, more than a month after the challengers. But Hutchinson isn't surprised they have been off the water for several weeks and are launching much later than the competition.

"Their regatta is a month later [than the Prada Cup] so the timing of the launch of their boat two is in line with what you would think."

Still, it leaves little time for Team NZ to get their new boat ready for the Christmas Cup regatta (December 17-20) where the four teams will line up against each other in fleet races.