American Magic heads for NZ

United States challenger American Magic have gambled on shipping their America’s Cup yacht to New Zealand, hoping their sailors will be able to follow.

The wealthy syndicate, backed by the New York Yacht Club, have their boat Defiant on a container ship heading to Auckland with an expected transit of 35 days getting it to New Zealand in early next month.

With the two America’s Cup world series regattas in Italy and England cancelled because of the health risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic, American Magic believe their best course is to get to New Zealand early and prepare in the local conditions.

A world series regatta is set for Auckland in December with the Prada Cup challenger series starting in January and the winner of that taking on defenders Emirates Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup in March.

American Magic will be hoping the easing of restrictions in New Zealand, which appears to be winning the battle against Covid-19, can allow their team entry.

They already have several Kiwi members of their staff in New Zealand, having completed the 14-day quarantine period.

American Magic confirmed the team’s reworked plans in the digital edition of Seahorse magazine that was published yesterday.

‘‘By the time this is on your kitchen counter we will have executed on a pivotal decision for our programme. All our gear will have been loaded and will be on its way to New Zealand,’’ Hutchinson said.

‘‘It is a nervous time as we have no guarantee at this very moment when non-New Zealand citizens will be allowed into the country.

‘‘We do know our future is in Auckland and we can only ‘hope’, a great value but not necessarily a great strategy, that by the time Defiant and the gear land in early June the New Zealand government has set up a smart, safe process to allow us to execute our planning.’’

Team New Zealand returned to the water late last week, managing to convince authorities they were eligible under the move to level three that eased tighter restrictions.

But Team New Zealand are having to base their testing and development on their small-scale test boat Te Kahu rather than their full 75-foot foiling monohull Te Aihe that is returning to New Zealand from the ill-fated trip to Europe that proved fruitless.

Te Aihe will only be back next month and the defenders will be eager to get her back in the water as quickly as possible.

There has been no suggestion, as yet, that the America’s Cup won’t go ahead despite major doubts over the tourist market.

Of the other challengers, INEOS Team UK have their boat back in Portsmouth and are pondering whether to resume testing there or also make an early move to Auckland.

Challenger of Record luna Rossa are back in the water in Sardinia and have indicated they will continue their development there, anticipating a later move to Auckland, perhaps by October.

The heavyweight challengers and Team New Zealand are all immersed in the build of their second generation boats that will be sailed in Auckland.

There is still talk of struggling Californian syndicate Stars + Stripes making it to Auckland now that the requirements of contesting the world series events in Europe has been wiped out.