“It is fantastic!” This was Paul Cayard’s verdict after a four-hour sail on the AC45 catamaran in beautiful conditions on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf today. Cayard and a crew from Artemis Racing put the cat through a thorough testing session.
Weekend boaters out on the water in force were thrilled to see the America’s Cup cat fly past – less than a week after it capsized in a freak wind gust in the Rangitoto Channel.

After the capsize, the damaged wing was taken to the Core Builders facility in Warkworth, north of Auckland, where a small team, including the America’s Cup Race Management (ACRM) team and members of the Artemis Racing crew, executed a flawless repair in just four days.

“We learned a lot in the process and were able to make some small modifications which we believe would reduce the damage if we have a similar incident again,” said Phil Jameson from Artemis Racing, who assisted in the repair of the boat’s wing sail.

Conditions on the Hauraki Gulf for the AC45’s return were excellent, with the breeze building from 12 knots to a solid 18 knots towards the end of the session.

Cayard qualified his comments by noting he was not a multihull sailor. “I have not done much sailing on multihulls, apart from messing about on a Hobie,” he said.“But this seems to me to be a great boat, very well designed. I was able to sail it for quite some time and it was very user-friendly.

“One of the biggest challenges with cats is the danger of digging in the leeward bow, but we never had that issue at all. There was always good buoyancy in the bows. I think that when you consider this project went from zero to sailing in just over four months, it is a very impressive effort.”

Paul Cayard.