Terry Hutchinson thought: “Here’s what worries me about Luna Rossa.”

When the skipper of an America’s Cup team speaks, and he does so by revealing technical aspects and recounting his impressions of the boats, it is always newsworthy precisely because it does not happen frequently. But one must be able to read into the folds of communication and understand that the America’s Cup is also a war of nerves on this aspect. Speaking this time is American Magic skipper Terry Hutchinson. A veteran of the America’s Cup and star of the Tp 52 class, co also highly experienced in the One Design world, Hutchinson in an official note released to the press went on the attack, speaking explicitly about his opponents’ boats and Luna Rossa in particular.

“It was very interesting to watch the launching of our opponents’ boats. Luna Rossa, which is a boat with a very scientific approach, showed incredibly small foils. While Team New Zealand’s boat followed the opposite option, with very large foils. When I compare our work with that of other teams, what makes me most nervous is Luna Rossa’s choice to start a completely boomless option. They are intelligent people and so I have to wonder why they are doing this” explained the skipper of the New York Yacht Club team . Who then pointed out, “Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand are the two top teams because of the advantage of having written the rulebook for this America’s Cup. They knew what the rules would be like seven months before we and Ineos did. We only got access to the rules on February 18, 2019, the final version arrived on June 30, and in August we already had to hand in the plans. If I had to choose one boat, it would be our Defiant (the name of American Magic’s AC75) because I have confidence in what it can give us in racing. Although I must admit that Luna Rossa is quite beautiful, with very fascinating aerodynamics and very small foils. This competition will be all about maneuverability and speed on the edge. If the regatta was a straight line across the bay, I would probably choose Luna Rossa. But if it comes down to sailing at speed and then maneuvering in 40 seconds, I one hundred percent choose our Defiant because of its ability to do both of these things well, which require opposite characteristics. The team that is able to eliminate falls from foils will be very difficult to beat. But first you have to be able to get up on the foils and then be sure you can maneuver and stay on the foils with a lower wind limit of only 6.5 knots, which is a challenging exercise. Based on this wind limit, I am willing to bet that Luna Rossa’s next set of foils will be significantly larger.”.

It would almost seem to be a response to what Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena said. during our interview, which we repost in its entirety at the link below, where Sirena instead declared himself quite convinced that boat 2 of the Americans and the British would be very different from boat 1, convinced that at the design level the Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand projects were definitely more centered.

Who is Terry Hutchinson

Born in 1968 in Annapolis (Maryland, USA), during his career he won twelve world titles in six different classes, both as tactician and helmsman. He participated in four America’s Cup challenges, winning a Luis Vuitton Cup. In 2001-2002 he participated in the Volvo Ocean Race on Djuice Dragons, and was named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in 2008 and 2012.
In recent years he has been responsible for two of the world’s highest-profile professional sailing campaigns, Doug DeVos’ TP52 Quantum Racing and Hap Fauth’s Maxi 70 Bella Mente. When DeVos and Fauth themselves joined resources with Roger Penske to launch the America’s Cup challenge with the New York Yacht Club, Terry Hutchinson was their natural choice to lead the American Magic team.

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