NZL 49er sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke reflect on Weymouth

by Peter Burling Blair Tuke on 18 Jun 2011
NZL Sailing Team members, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, report from on progress in the Olympic 49er campaign:
We are just back from the Sail-for-Gold regatta in England, not quite the result we were hoping for, finishing 12th overall. After our bronze medal in Holland a few weeks earlier, it was disappointing to miss the top-10 medal race for the first time in 18 months. A black flag disqualification (starting too early) in race 1 was not an ideal start. We struggled for speed a little bit which made it hard for us.

We were staying in a great apartment in Weymouth town, using bicycles to commute each day to Portland where the regatta is sailed from ... a nice 15min cycle was a good way to start and finish the day. It was pretty cold on the race course – water temperature below 12 deg and air temp breaking into double figures when the sun was out. Our early North Island winter seems rather mild compared to the UK summer!

We have 7 weeks at home before going back up to Weymouth for the Pre Olympic regatta. This regatta is exactly 1 year out from the Olympics with one representative competing from each country. It is our peak event for the year so we will have a week off and then get back into training to solve some of the areas of weakness identified in the regatta.

Getting home to NZ was an adventure ... we left on the train from Weymouth heading for Heathrow airport but unfortunately a fallen tree was blocking the track. A few hours delay had us hastily arrange a taxi. £190 later we just made our final check-in time. Then we were lucky enough to get into Auckland under the Chilean volcanic ash cloud.

Hoping the ash cloud will be all gone before we fly back to London on the 24th July.

A huge thanks to our friends, supporters and sponsors ...

Cheers Peter and Blair