Auckland, New Zealand (January 18, 2021) – After a mostly sleepless night following the capsize and near-sinking of American Magic’s AC75 racing yacht, PATRIOT, Skipper and Executive Director Terry Hutchinson faced questions from the press. Here’s a recap.On the local assistance:“We need to recognize the heroic effort by everybody in the Auckland community that came forward to rescue PATRIOT from despair. In particular the local authorities, the police, the fire and rescue, and then finally the competitors, Team New Zealand and INEOS and Luna Rossa. They were spectacular. When you think about that family, our sailing community, it was awesome to see the show of support.”On safety:“Fortunately, while [PATRIOT] has a bit of damage to her, the crew is safe. And at the end of the day, that’s really all you can ask for.”On team dynamics:“I trust Andrew [Campbell] and Dean [Barker], as we all do when we get on that boat day in and day out. We trust them with our lives. When one of those guys makes a comment and you hear it in his tone about it being light, you take it seriously. It is truly one of those games that if you make one mistake and the boat touches down, it doesn’t take much for the guy behind to get around you. And so we made the decision to do what we did.”
Source: Terry Hutchinson: Facing the press >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News
