New Zealand sailing’s golden boys are on the verge of more global success with Peter Burling and Blair Tuke looking to add a SailGP title to their resume this weekend.
The New Zealand team is gearing up for the final weekend of the season in San Francisco which culminates in the $1.5 million finale on Sunday.
“It’s hugely exciting, this has been a weekend we’ve been gearing up for for 18 months,” Tuke told 1News.
Last season, the New Zealand team finished fifth out of eight GP teams in their debut season but this campaign has been a totally different story with the Kiwis currently second overall on the back of three regatta wins out of 10 sailed.
Teams are hardly allowed to train in the F50s so racing is where the Burling, Tuke and the New Zealanders have been learning.
The Warkworth-built boats have hit nearly 100km/h this season — a mark Tuke an Burling are comfortable with given the similar speeds they’ve experienced with Team New Zealand.
But Burling said there’s actually a point where the boats can be going too fast for their own good.
“We hit this thing called cavitation which is where the water starts to boil off the foils, the pressure gets super low which creates a huge amount of drag,” Burling explained.
“That’s the reason why we hit the wall at about 50 knots.”
SailGP is continuing to heat up though with 12 stops scheduled for next season including Auckland next March, filling the gaping America’s Cup hole left by Team New Zealand’s decision to take the Auld Mug to Barcelona.
Burling said organisers were looking at downtown course options for the regatta.
“One of those is between Bayswater and Westhaven — it looks tight but it looks doable and it would create an amazing amphitheatre in there.
“It would be pretty amazing.”
So would a win on Sunday after a season of ups, downs and the odd lightning strike.
