Sailboat : racing sailing-yacht
BLACK MAGIC McMullen & Wing

- 24.23m

79' 6"ft

Launched in September 1993 at the McMullen and Wing shipyard in Auckland, the boat was christened by Joan Bolger, the wife of Prime Minister Jim Bolger. Although it took three times to break the traditional bottle of champagne over the bow, that 'bad omen' was very soon forgotten when the 'black beast' showed its pace against 'old red' (NZL-20), the Bruce Farr design from the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup. Three months later, NZL-32 was joined by NZL-38, and the two began a relentless training and tuning programme on the waters off Auckland until October 1994 when they were shipped to San Diego. The boats were sensational in the choppy seas off the West Coast of the United States where their long and narrow hulls easily cut through the chop to speed to victory.

The Kiwis aboard Black Magic II, NZL-38, set the pace up until the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals, with John Bertrand's oneAustralia (AUS-31) team nipping at its heels, despite the Australian's tragic and dramatic loss of their first boat. Team New Zealand shocked most observers when, despite leading, they decided to switch to Black Magic, the mighty NZL-32, for the challenger semi-finals and the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals. With easy victories in both, the America's Cup Match itself was just a formality.

After the Cup, the mighty NZL-32 returned to Auckand where it now remains in the New Zealand National Maritime Museum, Museum of New Zealand, as part of its collection.