Peter Burling and Blair Tuke - NZL 49er in Melbourne

by Richard Burling on 5 Nov 2011 Peter Burling and Blair Tuke update on their 2012 Olympic campaign in the 49er class:

We have been in Melbourne for the last week with our coach Jez, where we have been training with our Australian training partners in preparation for the first World Cup event of the season – Sail Melbourne - which starts on Monday with a small but high quality 49er fleet.

We have had a busy couple of months since our last newsletter back in Mid August.
To complement our Auckland training we programmed in blocks at our home clubs.

We started with a 5 day block of training at Peter’s home town, Tauranga – a good mixture of conditions in flat water. We are all hoping that the oil from RENA (the container ship which went on the reef a few days after we were there) will be cleaned up ASAP. Peter also found time for an afternoon’s sailing on his Foiling Moth - where he managed to set a personal best speed of 30.7 knots!

We competed at the inaugural Wellington Spirit Invitational regatta in early October. We sailed with a crew made up of NZL Sailing Team members which made for a fun weekend. Peter steered the MRX keelboat and Blair was on the bow (both new positions for us on this class of boat), after a slowish start we improved throughout to win overall.

Kerikeri (Blair’s home town) was our next block of training. Coach Jez made the trip north with his family to maximize the benefits of our training. A destination sail to Russell for lunch at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel one day, and catching some nice snapper after sailing added to the 4 days of good training.

We both helped crew boats on the Coastal Classic … 120 Mile race from Auckland to Russell – you might remember we did it on the 49er two years ago. With the forecast for plenty of wind behind the beam it was going to be a fast and furious ride. Blair was on a cool 30 foot canting keelboat 'Overload', an exciting/wet ride up the coast. Peter was on 'Wired' a 50 foot canter, they were the first monohull to Russell and first on handicap.

We managed to fit in a few rugby World cup games including getting tickets to the final. An amazing atmosphere with a brilliant result for the All Blacks (and the country).

At the Yachting NZ Awards evening, we were awarded a Performance award and Peter was also chosen as YNZ 'Young Sailor of the Year' (Blair at 22 was too old to share this U21 award).
Link ... http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Top-Olympic-Windsurfing-Coach-wins-NZ-Sailor-of-the-Year/90057

We have opened a new facebook page – 'Pete and Blair sailing'. We have loaded a few photos and will try to keep it updated regularly.
http://www.facebook.com/peter.burling#!/pages/Pete-and-Blair-Sailing/304921076191482

After Sail Melbourne we are back in NZ for a couple of weeks before heading back to Perth in December for the 49er World Championships and our first chance to qualify NZ for the Olympics.
Sail Melbourne Web site ... http://sailmelbourne.com.au/website/home.html

Peter and Blair