America’s Cup sailing came to Hamilton Harbour at the weekend — well, sort of.

An International Moth, owned by Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Sailing Academy director Tom Herbert-Evans, turned heads at the Argo Group Gold Cup as it sped around on hydrofoils like the wingsail catamarans used for the America’s Cup.

At the helm of the high performance dinghy was English sailor, Ben Paton, who is a past World and European champion in the Laser Radial.

“It was a bit tricky today, a bit shifty here in the harbour,” said Mr Paton, who is the fifth-ranked sailor in the world in the International Moth. “But I managed to get it going a few times.

“These boats, even in seven or eight knots of breeze, start to take off and you’re easily up to double the wind speed or maybe even three times. So it’s obviously pretty fast on the water compared to anything else, which is pretty cool”

Mr Paton gave awestruck onlookers a glimpse of what they can expect when the Island, at the very least, hosts a 35th America’s Cup World Series regatta.

Bermuda and San Diego are locked in a two-horse race to host the main event in 2017. An announcement of the venue for the 35th America’s Cup is expected in the not too distant future.

“I think it (America’s Cup) would be better here than in San Diego,” Mr Paton said. “Bermuda is a very nice place and, if the America’s Cup comes over here, most of the boys on the boats have their own Moths so you will get to see lots more around as well as the big forty-five footers (AC45).”

Mr Paton said handling an International Moth is not as complex as it seems.

“I think they look harder than they are,” he said.

“If you come from a sailing background and you’ve got some basic balance you can actually keep the boat up quite easily.”

Mr Paton, who is presently in Bermuda coaching junior Optimist and Laser sailors, hopes to see the International Moth attain Olympic class status in the future.

“Hopefully when they became one design they can become a really good Olympic class boat because you can sail them from very young to 60,” he said. “The weight range is pretty big as well so whether you are small or big you can still be competitive.”