(Reuters) – American Magic on Wednesday paid tribute to their three America’s Cup rivals who helped repair their yacht “Patriot” after it capsized during a Challenger Series race 10 days ago.
The vessel sustained significant damage after a gust of wind caused it to go airborne and hit the water before falling on its side.
It returned to the water for the first time on Wednesday, featuring a large sticker on its side with the New Zealand, British and Italian flags overlapping and the words ‘thank you’ written alongside.
“The band-aid graphic with the three flags that covers the repair is an acknowledgement from all of us of the invaluable assistance received from each of the other three syndicates,” an American Magic representative told the New Zealand Herald.
Grinder Sean Clarkson was confident they would hold their own when they meet Luna Rossa in the best-of-seven repechage semi-finals starting on Friday.
“It’s a fantastic boat and we have a very good bunch of sailors,” Clarkson told the Herald. “I don’t see anything different when we put it back in the water. It will be business as usual.”
INEOS Team UK skipper Ben Ainslie was impressed with how quickly American Magic had completed the repairs.
“You couldn’t help but imagine if that was you,” Ainslie wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
“I asked one of our senior engineers whether we would have been able to make it back for the semi-finals had the same thing happened to us and he said, ‘No chance.'”
The winner of the semi-finals will meet INEOS in the Challenger Series final, which decides who will take on Team New Zealand (TNZ) for the America’s Cup from March 6.
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru;Editing by Peter Rutherford)
