Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's NZL 49er Miami OCR regatta report

by Peter Burling/ Blair Tuke Burling / Tuke on 3 Feb 2010
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke report on their NZL 49er Miami OCR regatta in Rolex Miami OCR:

We are now home after 42 days sailing (including 6 major regattas) since leaving for Australia on Nov 20th. Fitting in a cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge in our 9 hour stopover in San Francisco was fun. We compete in Sail Auckland (starting on Thursday) – then we're having a planned break for a few weeks.

We have just won the 49er medal race to finish 8th overall at the Miami OCR World cup event. Our 49er fleet was made up of 36 boats from 17 countries. The course area was in the corner of Biscayne Bay close to the Rickenbacker Bridge Causeway near downtown Miami - plenty of current.

Day 1 - Wind 15-18 knots with a short nasty chop and thunderstorms over Miami city. Many classes didn't sail this day due to the forecast thunderstorms. We were going OK until we capsized in race 3 (Scores 5, 2, 23.)

Conditions for the rest of the regatta were warmer (up to 24 deg) with shifty/gusty offshore 8-11 knots and flat water with veins of wind coming down the course.
Day 2 - took a while to work out what was going on, another 2 unwanted big scores (19, 2, 26)
Day 3 – A great day for us (1, 1, 2 - up to 6th overall). We were really pleased with our tuning/tweaking especially being able to use both high and low modes upwind chasing the veins of wind.
Day 4 - Again we feel we raced well (places of 2, 6 in the first 2 races had us up to 2nd overall) … but an OCS disqualification (over start line early) in the last race of the day dropped us back.
Day 5 - Another starting penalty cost us any chance of a medal … we were one of 10 boats identified over the start line at the pin end – all for a 'buried' poor start anyway. To make it worse we had worked our way back to 4th by the finish. We then sailed the last race conservatively to make sure we made the medal race. (6, OCS, 11)

Day 6 – Medal race. Our course area was a 40 minute sail out into the middle of the bay – giving us our steadiest wind of the event. A good start had us leading at the top mark and extending to win comfortably for 8th overall. A great way to wrap up our first campaign of 2010. 12 year old Andy (the son of John Blumenthal who has been so awesomely helpful to us – thanks so much for everything John) got a great ride helping Peter sail back to the ramp under gennaker.

Overall we were pleased with the experience we've gained from this regatta – out of 16 races, we had 3 firsts and 4 seconds, and only 4 races where we weren't in the top 6 over the line. With just the 2 of us (no coach) there are different challenges that we've managed between us. Thanks to the Aussie boys Will and Sam and their coach Jonny Rogers for all their help – carrying our gear and helping us on the water. Prior to this summer we had only competed in 2 international 49er regattas – so this summer we've quadrupled our experience of 49er starting and big fleet tactics/racing. We feel we are on the pace – as we minimise our mistakes, we should become dangerous.

Packing up … fun… yeah right. As always the logistics throw curve balls. The container to Holland didn't arrive on Friday as organised, and wasn't packed till Monday- well after we flew out Sunday USA time. Luckily the Aussies and Argentineans sharing our container were able to pack it after a bit of very rapid organising late Friday afternoon.

We've had a great summer, and feel our Olympic campaign is on track – the 49er is a great boat to sail and we are having lots of fun.

Cheers. Peter and Blair