After racing into a squall, crashing, capsizing, incurring significant damage and coming close to sinking, American Magic's AC75 racing yacht, PATRIOT, made it back to shore at 10:45 PM NZDT after a herculean effort to save the boat.
The arrival of the American AC75 back to the team base in Wynyard Quarter was due not only to the perseverance of the team, which never gave up the fight over many hours, but that of the greater Auckland and America's Cup communities. The three other Cup teams, the AC36 event management team, and multiple branches of Auckland's rescue services came to the aid of American Magic in a moment of urgent need.
Hutchinson said that this type of incident would certainly be a major challenge to overcome, especially with only 12 days remaining until the Prada Cup semifinals. He also said that the resilience of his team is never in doubt. So they will not attend RR3 and RR4 next weekend, but we shall see them stronger for the semi finals on 29th January.
SSL Finals 2017 Champion, Paul Goodison (GBR), is the main sail trimmer on PATRIOT, and you can clearly hear his concerns on the manouvre they are about to take from the onboard mic.
Source:
SSL Press Officer since 2015