No more Nacras, no more Phantoms, no more GC32s. No more training cats.

Team BDA are now full on sailing the foiling, hard-winged AC45F catamaran, flying in on their final approach to the Red Bull America’s Cup.

Four of Bermuda’s Red Bull Youth America’s Cup Team had never sailed. None of the final team had ever raced a catamaran in their young lives. This is a new experience for all of them. They are entering a new realm.

Team BDA will set the standard for the next generation of Bermuda sailors who will be compared to them.

After being chosen through an intense vetting process, Team BDA’s first task was to master the initial training platform, a GC32 foiling catamaran with a soft, conventional mainsail.

They were out to perfect a foiling gybe in this boat, staying up in the daggerboard foils as they change direction with the wind behind them.

The ultimate goal is to win the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in the same foiling AC45F hard-winged catamaran that the professionals sailed in the America’s Cup World Series.

To do this they hope to master not only foiling gybes, which have become a routine necessity, but also master foiling tacks with the bow moving through the eye of the wind.

Team director Laura Cutler said: “From our fresh start at the entry level, we now think the team has the potential for a podium finish. The challenge is three fold — developing sailing skill, getting physically fit and building mental focus.”

“They have to spend time sailing on both platforms, the GC32 and the AC45F. They need to build a level of ultimate trust in each other.

“No one on the team knew everyone else although they are essentially from the same town. Now, they have come together as a team, working for months, taking off from school or jobs to take on this task, to represent Bermuda in this challenging event. The results are promising.”

Under the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup rules, all teams are only allowed seven training days in the AC45F before April 9.

Team BDA are sailing the Oracle Team USA’s AC45F, adapting the skills learnt sailing the team’s GC32 to this new and highly technical platform. They were out on the Sound last weekend.

Head coach Richard Clarke noted: “Obviously our team is working through a steep learning curve, with this new boat, but after only two days of sailing the lights are starting to turn on. I have no doubt that in a day or two our team will be prepared to really heat this boat up and battle the few other youth teams training in Bermuda.”

Shomari Warner, the bowman who had never sailed before making the cut for the team, said: “We expected that sailing the AC45F would be challenging, and while it is that, it is also very exciting. We can’t wait to keep getting out there during our short practice period through next week.”

Warner is from Hamilton Parish and attended Francis Patton before later studying at Pickering College and Fanshawe College in Canada.

With an athletic background in boxing and rugby, Warner got his start in sailing in June last year. The 23-year-old sees taking part in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America’s Cup as “a chance to be a part of history in Bermuda”.

Dimitri Stevens, training to be a helmsman, has much more sailing experience. He began sailing at 11-years-old through Bermuda’s Waterwise Programme at Dellwood Middle School.

He is a Bermuda College student studying to enter the information technology field; before that he attended the Berkeley Institute, Dellwood Middle School and West Pembroke Primary.

The young Bermudian excelled as an Opti sailor, raced in 420s and Comets and was helmsman on the Fitted Dinghy Contest.

He even sailed as crew on the Spirit of Bermuda in a Newport Bermuda Race.

Stevens, now 22, considers taking part in Team BDA the pinnacle of his sailing career and admits training for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup has already opened up a lot of doors. As an only child, the young man admits he has learnt through the experience how to be a better team-mate and how to interact with people in both calm and tense situations.

Dimitri says his sailing hero is Sir Ben Ainslie — skipper and principal of America’s Cup challenger Land Rover BAR — “because he is the most decorated Olympic sailor, and I have looked up to him since he had a talk with us at one of the Gold Cup events when I was starting sailing”.

As the volunteer team director, Cutler summed up her feelings. “Personally, I cannot express how incredible it is to see this team out on the 45. I pinch myself.

“From following 120 young people trying out for a chance to watching this team learn to foil an AC45, in the space of 15 months, they’ve come so far.

“This is an extraordinary group of young Bermudians, and it has been an honour to be part of this amazing opportunity.”