Yachts & Yachting - July 2018

proper America’s Cup team together.
And irst of we need to make sure we
do not lose too many points at the irst
regatta,” Vascotto has emphasised.

AMERICAN MAGIC
he New York Yacht Club’s American
Magic is the second America’s Cup
team which will compete in 2018. It’s a
challenge which has evolved from Hap
Fauth’s successful Bella Mente Maxi 72
programme and Doug DeVos’ multiple
TP52 championship winners, Quantum
Racing. heirs is acknowledged to
have been the benchmark programme
on the circuit against which others
measure themselves, not least
Azzurra, last year’s series winner.
his year, they have a new Botin
designed boat built at Longitud Cero
near Valencia, Spain. hey have recruited
Dean Barker as helm, and the core team
(including Barker and Terry Hutchinson)
have been training and competing at
the top match race events in the US.
British sailor James Lyne is the team
coach. He explains that Quantum is
again running a three boat programme

• sharing data and coaching with
  Harm Müller Spreer’s Platoon and
  the new Brasilian team, Onda, of
  Eduardo de Souza Ramos. (As part of
  the stymied Ainslie alliance Gladiator
  moved from Quantum to North.)
  “It is good for us to have Platoon in
  our camp,” he says, describing the Vrolijk
  design as an “outlier”. He acknowledges
  that the designers - Vrolijk and Botin -
  have crossed over in terms of design but
  says there are still areas of diferentiation

that teams can use to advantage. “I think

the hull form of Platoon (Vrolijk) has

more rounded sections, large planform

foils; going upwind in sub 12 knots, the

boat sails high and makes little leeway.

hey will be a danger upwind all the

time and they will get it going in the

stronger stuf. here are times when

the Botin design is more powerful

so there are times to use that to an

advantage by pressing the boat forwards

versus the Vrolijk. he Botin boats

are certainly going well downwind.”

Lyne believes it to be a mistake on

the part of those Cup contenders who

are not participating in the 52 Super

Series, believing that actively racing

is crucial to campaign success, over

and above exclusively training and

testing. “Winning is a learned process.

You have to go out and do it to be able

to be comfortable winning,” he says.

“In the 52 we have a great group of

sailors; we need to keep practising and

racing: how do we develop the boat

together? How do we communicate

under pressure? You look at the boat

and you look at the crews involved;

everyone has stepped up the game.”

BATTLE OF THE DESIGNERS

Of the nine new build boats this season

there are seven built to the Botin

Partners design: Alegre (Andy Soriano);

Azzurra (Roemmers Family); Luna Rossa

(Patrizio Bertelli); Onda (Eduardo de

Souza Ramos); Phoenix (Hasso Plattner);

Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos); and

Sled (Takashi Okura). Two are to the

Vrolijk design: Platoon (Harm Müller-

Spreer), and Provezza (Ergin Imre).

In efect all of the Botin hull, deck and

appendage designs are identical, as, Y&Y

believes, are the Vrolijk designs. he

boats are now so reined into the same

design corner of the TP52 box rule – (the

Botin is their iteenth TP52 generation)

• and developed for a mean wind range

Winning is a learned process, you have to go

out and do it... We need to keep practising

Above

Azzurra was the

winning boat in

last year’s TP52

Super Series

Below

Platoon has

joined forces with

the Quantum

campaign and is

proving fast so far

July 2018 Yachts & Yachting 27