Magnus Wheatley generates the kind of AC 75 enthusiasm that we can’t quite muster…
I remember vividly the first time I saw a 12 Metre in the flesh and I was bowled over. I can remember too, with infinite clarity, the first time I saw an IACC yacht for real lining up in the America’s Cup. On both occasions I had knots in my stomach as butterflies whizzed around uncontrollably.
It was elation and anticipation of the sort that six year olds have on Christmas Eve. Neither yacht disappointed. At those two key times, and we’re talking early 1980’s and early noughties, they were the pinnacle of design, the result of endless hours of tank testing, computer modelling, sailmaking, spar design and crew ergonomics from the finest.
They delighted in every way possible and were so different to what I sailed at that time, or even understood about sailing, that they looked, sounded and felt like something from outer space. I have the same feeling now about the AC75’s. Read on.
