Peter Burling and Blair Tuke NZL 49er update from Europe

by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke on 7 Jun 2010
NZL Sailing Team members, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke update from Europe:

It's always fun to have a successful trip to Europe and return with some metalware. We've done this before in other classes but this is the first time in our 49er campaign so far.

We hope everyone is up-to-date, from last weeks report in Sail-World, with our just completed Delta Lloyd World cup regatta in Holland where we won Silver in the 49er class...

We picked up our boat from storage - we hadn't seen it since it left Miami in February. Our new sails and mast (air freighted) arrived on time, allowing us a week to concentrate on getting used to the conditions, checking gear and fine-tuning our racing tactics. Having a day off before the regatta allowed us to brush up on our golf skills, we used 25 balls between the three people playing over 18 holes ... need we say more.

Our accommodation was just a short walk to the 49er boat park – sharing a house with Dave and Ed (top placed GBR 49er) and our YNZ coach Jez Fanstone worked really well. It was awesome to have Jez with us for the regatta! Thanks YNZ.

The regatta had a huge range of conditions from drifters to puffs over 20 knots. It was nice to find our speed pretty good over the whole range and to improve our racing results every day through the regatta.

The only gear issue we had was our vang arm (the vang holds the boom down) collapsing on the water just before the medal race – quick work with help from Jez had it replaced just 5 minutes before the warning signal ... leaving just enough time to adjust our settings for the conditions and do a few different manoeuvres to get ready for the race. We had our chances in the medal race, finishing second, but couldn't quite get past Aussies Nathan and Iain. 1-2 overall for Oceania.

We loaded the boat on the roof rack, received our silver medals at prize giving and managed a little celebrating. A day's driving the next day had us in Weymouth, England. We only missed the Calais- Dover ferry by a few minutes - but there was room on the next ferry for us. It was surprising how much the car moved around with the extra windage of the 49er on the roof.

The training has been going well in Weymouth, venue for the London Olympics 2012. This is the first time we have sailed here. We are told wind conditions are similar to NZ, where you can expect anything. We arrived in rain but now the sun has come out with generally light wind.

We drive back to Amsterdam on Monday, store the car and fly home to NZ. We fly back to Europe on 25th June to get ready for our 49er Europeans in Poland.

Overall a great trip and we're pleased with our progress – but have still got lots to work on.

We are both looking forward to a couple of weeks R&R back in NZ.

Cheers, Peter and Blair.