U.S. Team Launches First America’s Cup Boat

Author:: Adam Cort
Publish date:: Sep 16, 2019

Fast forward to around 2:25 to see the boat in action. First day out and already doing full-foiling gybes: not too shabby!

Hard on the heels of the unveiling of New Zealand’s first AC75, the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic team has now launched its first America’s Cup monohull as well.

Named Defiant, the boat is the first America’s Cup design to represent the New York YC in over 16 years and represents an estimated 76,000 combined hours of fabrication and finishing work.

The boat was built in a dedicated facility in Bristol, Rhode Island, the site of America's Cup boatbuilding efforts since the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company's first Cup defender, Vigilant, was launched in 1893.

American Magic will continue to train in Rhode Island throughout the fall of 2019 before relocating to Pensacola, Florida, for the winter.

For more on both Defiant and the America’s Cup, which will be sailed in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2021, click here.

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