{"id":82944,"date":"2026-02-02T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=82944"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:26:23","slug":"starting-line-american-magic-exits-the-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/starting-line-american-magic-exits-the-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"American Magic Shifts From the Cup to Cultivation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"American <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n American Magic sailors wave to supporters in Barcelona before its elimination from the Louis Vuitton Cup. Their focus now shifts to domestic priorities.\n<\/span>\n Ricardo Pinto\/AC37<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

The New York YC\u2019s American Magic was 0-2 with its America\u2019s Cup challenges, and given its early eliminations from AC36 and AC37, the money burn rate was high and the return on investment low. It\u2019s all par for the course with the America\u2019s Cup. After decamping from Barcelona to the team\u2019s base in Pensacola, Florida, there was plenty of lip service about another go at the Cup in Naples, Italy in 2028, but in October, what was a hard maybe became a hard pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They didn\u2019t agree with the final Protocol or the defender\u2019s proposed scheme to take management of the regatta out of the hands of Emirates Team New Zealand and into the hands of a quasi-independent governing body called the \u201cAmerica\u2019s Cup Partnership.\u201d With American Magic\u2019s exit, for the first time in Cup history, there may be no American syndicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter extensive engagement with the Defender, Challenger of Record and fellow teams, we\u2019ve concluded that the present structure does not provide the framework for American Magic to operate a highly competitive and financially sustainable campaign for the 38th America\u2019s Cup,\u201d said Doug DeVos, American Magic owner, in a team statement. \u201cWe care deeply about the America\u2019s Cup and what it represents. However, for a team committed to long-term excellence, alignment around financial viability and competitive performance is essential. At this time, we don\u2019t believe those conditions are in place for American Magic to challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry Hutchinson, the team\u2019s sailing director, says American Magic\u2019s exit is more of a \u201chiatus\u201d that will allow them to instead prioritize building \u201ca sustainable platform for high-performance sailing in the United States.\u201d While winning the America\u2019s Cup was always the goal, Hutchinson says they can now focus on their parallel effort to build what they envision as a pipeline of top-level American sailors, designers, engineers and boatbuilders. The shift in priorities, Hutchinson adds, will also allow them to bolster the underperforming U.S. Olympic sailing program by diverting funds and resources to private organizations supporting athletes, including AmericaOne Racing and the Sailing Foundation of New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hutchinson, American Magic\u2019s issues with the Protocol and the America\u2019s Cup Partnership primarily revolved around concerns with the event\u2019s commercial structure and future governance, and specifically, what the team felt was the lack of a clear and sustainable financial model. American Magic sought a structure where investors could reasonably expect to recoup their investments within a couple of cycles, but found the proposed model too risky and not conducive to such a goal. The model, Hutchinson says, would require ongoing support from private individuals and yacht club members rather than evolving into a self-sustaining, profitable sporting entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SailGP, he says, has the right model, borrowing many of its elements straight from Formula 1\u2019s playbook. And SailGP may well be in the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus for American Magic and its skeleton crew of engineers, boat builders and sailors in Pensacola is to now take a measured and strategic approach to winding down its America\u2019s Cup operations and assets. Hutchinson says that process includes evaluating the potential to support another American team, should one step up to fill the void, which is not likely at this point. \u201cWe would always be open to supporting another American team if somebody wanted to step forward and take it on,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s not a small undertaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, they\u2019re not rushing to fire sale all of their AC assets either, which include a pair each of AC75 and AC40s, containers full of parts and spares, assorted gear and foil sets, not to mention priceless design and performance data and intellectual property. While now officially out of AC38, Hutchinson says they remain cautious and \u201cprefer not to make hasty decisions that could close doors to future America\u2019s Cup involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Hutchinson says, they intend to keep their foot wedged in the America\u2019s Cup door and would conceivably field teams into the planned Women\u2019s and Youth America\u2019s Cup AC40 regattas\u2014should American Magic be invited to race. \u201cWe want to be good stewards for the America\u2019s Cup,\u201d he says, so the plan is to wait, observe how the event evolves and keep the possibility open for a future return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now however, the Olympics, and custom boatbuilding, take precedence, and for this, there are ample resources at American Magic\u2019s Pensacola base. Hutchinson stresses that the goal is to build on existing Olympic systems already in place with US Sailing and elsewhere, rather than disrupting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the first way to make the connection is to not impede progress that is already happening,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a great system already in place, so our role over the next two and a half years is to learn the system that they have and support it where we can. We should make sure that every US sailor that goes to the Olympics in a boat that is immaculately prepared and perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the opening of its high-performance sailing center and leaning US Olympic sailing support, the former America’s Cup challenger shifts its focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":82945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[170,171,186,177,267,3069],"class_list":["post-82944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-americas-cup","tag-american-magic","tag-olympic-sailing","tag-racing","tag-starting-line","tag-winter-2026"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}