Oracle Team USA, the defender of the America’s Cup, tested the waters in the Great Sound for the first time yesterday.

Kyle Langford, Graeme Spence, Joey Newton and Andrew Campbell were the first to get a feel for the local conditions, sailing in two foiling Phantom catamarans.

Despite the light air conditions, ranging between 5-8 knots, the Oracle sailors still managed to foil around on the racecourse for the 35th America’s Cup.

“We didn’t have a lot of breeze but we were able to get foiling in the Phantoms and then we were straight into some racing,” Langford, the Oracle trimmer, said.

“It was our first day out there so it was good to see the racecourse area for the first time.

“It’s a beautiful place, really nice pristine water, and it’s great to be sailing in such a cool spot. It looks like it will be an awesome place to sail.”

Langford described the racecourse as challenging, especially competing in the turbocharged America’s Cup Class wing-sail foiling catamarans.

“The racecourse is tight,” he said. “We’re going to cover the distance quickly and get to the edges of the racecourse fast. There’s not a whole lot of space out there.”

Oracle Team USA will continue training in their Phantoms until their AC45 catamaran is ready to make its first appearance in local waters.

“We’re planning to be out every day we can until we get the AC45 out on the water, which is planned for May 1,” Langford said.

Oracle Team USA have shifted their operations from Pier 80 in San Francisco to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda.

The first American team to defend the Cup outside of the United States will train out of their new Bermuda base in the lead-up to July’s America’s Cup World Series curtain-raiser in Portsmouth, England — home port of British America’s Cup challenger Ben Ainslie Racing.

Ainslie, who was a tactician aboard Oracle’s AC72 at the previous America’s Cup, has travelled to Bermuda twice this year with his team-mates to train in the foiling Nacra 20 catamarans.