Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and President of Operations and his COO, Tyson Lamond, explain how New York Yacht Club team American Magic is leveraging its programme and profile to promote sailing as an activity and career within wider communities.
At a superficial level the America’s Cup may well appear highly technical and completely inaccessible. But look again and you see that this flagship yacht racing series has many valuable attributes that can be engaged in promoting the wider cause of yachting. Big budgets, cutting edge technology and a profile big enough to ignite national media outlets are three obvious examples.
There is growing pressure from sponsors for strong social responsibility programmes, which is helping to make participation outreach and skills development a more natural fit in the overall programme. Perhaps most important of all are the hundreds of the sailing world’s brightest minds drawn in by each edition of the America’s Cup, on the water and behind the scenes. The passion and the expertise they can bring to bear has unlimited value in evangelising the sport they love to wider communities.
That’s certainly the case for New York Yacht Club American Magic, as we found out on a recent visit to its Barcelona racing base. Team Skipper and President of Operations, Terry Hutchinson explained ways in which the America’s Cup is attracting new participants and career entrants: “The initiative by the Defender and Challenger of Record to have the youth and women’s regatta sailing AC40s was a step in the right direction by opening the regatta to a broader range of participants. One of the ancillary benefits of these events has been the quality of the sailors and the male and female engineers who have been drawn in. From American Magic’s perspective we want the best people who are qualified to do the job, irrespective of gender. We’ve been positively surprised when hiring some younger people who haven’t had the experience but are already quite good at what they’re doing.
“Our great mission at American Magic is to attract new talent. In 20 years’, when our children are trying to win the America’s Cup, they’re going to be much further along in their knowledge of computers and learning and the subtleties of racing. This is in addition to them also advancing in much the same way that I’ve seen the evolution of the sailor over the past two decades and six America’s Cup campaigns.
“If you then consider the high-performance training centre that we’re developing within the Port of Pensacola in Florida, we have an awesome opportunity provide continuity for our America’s Cup team and to evolve the US marine trade. We really want to re-establish our country as leaders in that space, from engineering and design, construction and manufacturing, and sail making and shore teams. All the things that go into a successful America’s Cup team apply to a lot of different areas of our sport. If we can help develop those skills, it’s a massive boost not only for us but also for all people who love the sport of sailing.”
Skills focused high performance sailing centre
American Magic has secured a lease agreement with the City of Pensacola to establish a high-performance sailing centre at the Port of Pensacola. This cutting-edge facility will serve as its headquarters for designing, building, hosting regattas, with adjacent waters being perfect for yacht testing and developing the current and next generation of America's Cup, Olympic, and International sailors.
The facility will eventually support all American Magic’s operations, including R&D, maintenance, repair, boat storage, office and training facilities. It will also provide a springboard to attract and train the next generations of sailors, engineers, designers and support staff.
“We’re building Stage 1 right now,” explains American Magic COO, Tyson Lamond. “This is a 7400m2 manufacturing facility that can build class race boats and one-offs, from Olympic skiffs right up to the AC75. It will give us a permanent base in the US for the first time. It’s our goal to have the facility finished by the end of April 2025.
“The two sailing simulators we have in Barcelona for the 37th edition will also move to our Pensacola facility. So, we’ll be able to bring in a group of around 30 sailors for two weeks, to experience what it is like to be in a cup team. They will access the simulators and also sail on Pensacola Bay, which is one of the most beautiful sailing locations we've ever been to.
“Stage two will be the marina. This type of construction is always more challenging with dredging and breakwaters, but the State of Florida has been very supportive.
“The important thing to remember is it is not just about American Magic. Our partnership with Pensacola is about bringing more people into sailing. In Florida the kids either want to play in the NFL or choose basketball or baseball. Sailing’s not such a big activity, certainly in that region. We want to bring more events to Pensacola and open the eyes of as many people as we can to this great sport that we do every day.
“Our state-of-the-art facility will be modelled similarly to a football, baseball, or basketball facility with a wow factor to bring more kids in. All we need is to get them out on the water for a week, and I’m sure they'll have the same feelings that we all had as first-timers.
Major commitment to skills development
“There used to be a lot of big boat manufacturing companies in America. There’s not much now and every time American Magic has built an AC boat, we’ve done that in-house. So what we’re setting up in Pensacola is a manufacturing facility where we can build our yachts, other high-performance boats and bring the next generation of boatbuilders through. We’ll establish an apprenticeship programme similar to those run in a lot of other countries.
“We’ve signed a 10-year lease with the option to keep the facility for 20 years, which is a big obligation. You need to make these big commitments to get things to move forward because otherwise people cannot see past three or four years and wonder what will happen afterwards. We needed this long-term partnership with the city to create junior pathways, sustainability programmes, manufacturing initiatives and a growing programme of sailing events. American Magic is very well supported by Mayor DC Reeves in this.
We’re very fortunate to have the vision of our Team Principals, Hap Fauth and Doug DeVos. They are very focused on the future and promoting American sailing back to the pinnacle it once held. Our job as a team is to have a facility in Pensacola that serves our team but also focuses on the future generations and bringing the next group through. If that doesn’t happen it will all fall over because there’s nobody then left to carry the basket.
Learn about American Magic with METSTRADE
Terry Hutchinson, the highly experienced Skipper and President of Operations for New York Yacht Club American Magic, will provide an inspirational keynote at the METSTRADE ICOMIA Breakfast Briefing on 19 November. Prior to then we’ll be bringing you unique insights through METSTRADE.com on how the team harnesses technology, excellent team dynamics and accessibility to meet its objective of winning the 37th edition of the America’s Cup and wider goals of broadening sailing opportunities, career development and hi-tech yacht manufacturing in the US.
