There is barely a sound as its sails fill and the "sister ship" to New Zealand's America's Cup race boat takes off, its huge hull seemingly defying gravity as it lifts eerily above the sea.
Squeezed into a pod on the port side of the French team's 22-meter boat, the sensation one sailor described as "go karting on a flying carpet," feels like being airborne, with occasional dips and lurches resembling mild turbulence on a plane.
Hunched over handlebars in the pod behind, sweat dripping into the bilges, a "power sailor" is pedaling furiously to pump the oil needed for the hydraulics used to trim the wing-like sails.
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