Emirates Team NZ duo make it 21 consecutive wins in 49er

by Sail-World.com NZL on 9 Nov 2015 Emirates Team New Zealand helm and crew have added to their string of consecutive regatta wins.

They have just won another 49er regatta in Argentina ahead of the 2015 World Championships at the same venue, finishing 26pts ahead of the second and third placed crews, both from Austria, who had to be separated by a tie breaker.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the South American 49er Championships in their new boat affectionately named #thanksmate

That's 21 straight wins in the 49er for the crew who are also part of the NZL Sailing Team.

Blair Tuke comments - 'Overall we are really happy with the regatta. We have eight days until the start of racing at the 49er World Champs so it has been a great lead in regatta to that and really cool to be crowned South American Champs again”

Three other New Zealand crews finished in 26th and 36th and 41st place in the 53 boat fleet. New Zealand was represented by a further three crews in the men’s fleet including Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson (26th overall), and Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey (36th) both members of Yachting New Zealand’s Aon Fast Track Squad. Markus Somerville and Aaron Hume-Merry (NZL) placed 41st overall.

In the women’s 49erFX event New Zealand’s Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have placed 5th overall.

2012 Olympic Gold medalists, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen did not make the cut for the Medal race and finished 11th overall. Both are the helmsman and crew respectively of Artemis Racing's America's Cup Challenge.

Burling and Tuke's win comes just days before the outcome of the 2015 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards will be revealed. Burling and Tuke are among five finalists for the prestigious award, set to be announced at a gala dinner on Tuesday evening in China. The pair are the defending 49er World and European Champions. Burling won the 2015 Int Moth Worlds in Melbourne, and as helmsman and crew for Emirates Team NZ are leading the overall points score in the America's Cup World Series, by a ten point margin.

The entry lists in both the men’s and women’s events were heavy with talent featuring all the world’s best crews in the Olympic skiff classes, as the regatta acted as a build up for this month’s 2015 49er and 49erFX World Championships at the same venue.

Lying 3rd overall with a six point gap to close heading into the final day of the four day regatta, the possibility of Burling and Tuke continuing their phenomenal 20 consecutive regatta winning streak looked in danger.

However three single digit races to open the day saw them start the medal race with the overall lead. Going on to place 5th in the medal race the kiwis wrapped up the regatta 22 points clear and make it 21 victories in a row.

“It is really nice to take the win,” says Peter Burling.

“We’d just unpacked a new boat and spent some time setting it up, one day on the water and then it was pretty much straight into the first race.”

Burling explains that the Buenos Aires venue throws up some unique challenges.

“It is a different place to sail and a really challenging place to sail. The water is close to fresh water, and there’s quite a lot of mud in it. It’s really hard to read the puffs – but really rewarding when you get it right.”

“It was a really tricky event,” he continues. “We were sailing early in the day before the sea breeze came in. You can see on the score card that everyone got it wrong at some point, we were just fortunate that we only got one wrong in the gold fleet series.”

“For us this regatta was about building and learning with the main event still to come. We’re really happy with how we’ve been going this week, but we have some more work to do.”

Racing for the 2015 49er and 49erFX World Championships get underway on Monday 16th November and runs for six days with the medal races and prize-giving planned for Saturday 21st November.

“It is a really challenging place to get it right all the time – so it’s going to be tough venue to sail the World Championships.”

“We’ll take tomorrow off and then we will be back on the water.”



2015 49er and 49erFX South American Championships New Zealand’s Final Results
Full results click here

49er (53 boats)
1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
26th Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson
36th Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey
41st Markus Somerville and Aaron Hume-Merry

49erFX (43 boats)
5th Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech

Coming up soon…

2015 49er and 49erFX World Championships
Dates: 16-21 November 2015
Venue: Buenos Aries, Argentina
Featuring: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech and a handful of up and coming kiwi 49er crews including Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson, Markus Somerville and Aaron Hume-Merry, Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey

2015 Finn Gold Cup
Dates: 24-29 November 2015
Venue: Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand
Featuring: Andrew Murdoch, Josh Junior and plenty more local and international sailors

Laser Radial World Championships
Dates: 20-26 November 2015
Venue: Al Mussanah, Oman
Featuring: Sara Winther, Susannah Pyatt