Nice touch: PATRIOT flies again
by Mark Jardine 27 Jan 2021 05:53 UTC
27 January 2021
New York Yacht Club American Magic's PATRIOT is relaunched after her massive capsize and repairs © COR36 / Studio Borlenghi
The NYYC American Magic base has been a hive of activity since their yacht capsized and near sank on Sunday 17th January. Today, with an immense amount of work, and the support of the team in the Emirates Team New Zealand's build facility, PATRIOT was back out on the water.
This has been a herculean effort. The hull repair alone was a complex rebuild in a short timescale, but the removal, testing and replacing of the electronics and control systems is mind-boggling.
All along American Magic Skipper and Executive Director Terry Hutchinson has been thankful to the other teams and Auckland community for their support. The Band-Aid thank you sticker on the port side of the hull is a nice touch and reflects very publicly just how grateful the whole team are.
We're all enjoying this PRADA Cup and now hope the team can iron out any issues and be competitive in their Semi Final match-up against the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team starting on Friday.