WATER WORLD

The New York Yacht Club team, American Magic, will make another run at the America's Cup in Barcelona through October

- JORDAN RIEFE

During the 2021 America's Cup regatta, the Auckland waters were unkind to American Magic's AC75 "Patriot." During a semifinal race, the team had overtaken Italy's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and was leading by a significant margin when the wind speed jumped during a risky maneuver, causing the vessel to capsize.

"The moment is still surreal," Skipper Terry Hutchinson told BOAT International at the time. "I can still see the water bubbling around me as I struggle to get out of my harness. One tether is keeping me pinned under the surface, and with every attempt to get air, all I'm getting is water. The main sail is on top of me, as well as my teammates Cooper Dressler, Cicho Cicchetti and Tim Hornsby.

What seems like an eternity ends up passing in seconds as Cooper and Cicho cut me out and I'm able to get that first big gasp of air." This year, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) team American Magic seeks redemption at the 37th America's Cup, presented by Louis Vuitton, in Barcelona from August through October. Since its inception in 1851, NYYC held the America's Cup for 132 years before losing it in 1983 to "Australia II" and the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Since then, it's been touch and go for the United States, intermittently giving up the trophy to Switzerland and New Zealand, but mostly New Zealand.

"They're a well-polished outfit," Skipper Hutchinson, one of the world's most esteemed sailors, tells Maxim. New Zealand has the most successful team in the modern era, having won the America's Cup four times (1995, 2000, 2017 and 2021). "We saw that last time how advanced their boat was in front of everybody else. But this time around it's a different story. All the boats are much more similar. We're probably a little bit more the outlier than some of the others-the hull shape and the form. And usually the boat that's most extreme wins-or loses-by a lot."