On a steamy July day at the port on Pensacola Bay, American Magic Chief Operating Officer Tyson Lamond begins a factory tour in an incongruously chilly room inside a much larger, 35,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. The room houses cockpit simulators for the world’s fastest racing sailboats, contenders for the legendary America’s Cup. Winning the cup would be the pinnacle achievement for American Magic, but Lamond has a broader agenda in mind as he emerges into the heat and crosses into a building under construction that’s destined for manufacturing and storing 75-foot sailboats when they’re not tacking and jibing on the bay.
The new American Magic building, scheduled for completion in November, will be “transformational for our sport,” Lamond says in his Australian accent. “It’s about growing the sport of sailing,” and also the “manufacturing side of our sport.”
“I’m not talking just about boat building. I’m talking about the next generation of designers, the next generation of electronics technicians, hydraulics technicians, riggers.”…