Kinley Fowler, the Oracle Team USA trimmer, has made a full recovery from an injury that ruled him out of last month’s Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Fowler was among Oracle’s crew that sailed in the team’s first AC45 test boat that resumed training in the Great Sound yesterday after undergoing an upgrade to closely replicate the configuration of the team’s second test boat that is expected to be launched by the end of the month.

It was the sailor’s first time in an AC45 since injuring his hand that sidelined him from the America’s Cup World Series Gothenburg where Oracle, Defender of the oldest trophy in international sport, finished runners up to overall series leaders Emirates Team New Zealand.

Oracle could not have asked for a better day to relaunch their modified AC45 test boat as yesterday’s 10-15 knot southwesterly breezes and flat water made for ideal conditions for the team’s foiling catamaran to bare all of its teeth.

“It was great to get out there,” Jimmy Spithill, the Oracle skipper, said. “Beautiful day, everything worked really well.

“It’s the first day back. The boat’s been in the shed for a while now and the shore, design, engineers and boatbuilders have been putting in a lot of work. We’ve made a lot of changes to the boat.”

Among the most significant modifications to Oracle’s first AC45 test boat is the addition of a second grinding pedestal to each side of the boat which will increase the physical demands on the sailors and closely imitate the America’s Cup class boat for 2017.

“Important to get that first day under out belt,” Spithill, the youngest skipper to win the coveted ‘Auld Mug’, noted. “Now we need to put the boat through its paces over the next few days and get ready for boat two in a couple of weeks.”

Spithill can barely wait to begin sparring with the team’s second boat that arrived from New Zealand last month.

“The great thing about two boats is you have a solid benchmark,” the Australian said. “You can try something on one boat and see the effect almost immediately.

“So that’s important on the design side, but for the sailing team we benefit as well as we try different techniques. The gains and losses are so huge that we can learn a lot very quickly, but that only happens when you have a sparring partner.”

Oracle’s two AC45s are a test platform for the eventual boat the team will design to defend the America’s Cup in when Bermuda hosts the main event in June 2017.

Oracle, who will host next month’s America’s Cup World Series in Bermuda, plan to launch again today.

“We’ll put some more work in tonight and get back out there tomorrow,” Spithill, the 2014 ISAF Sailor of the Year, added.