Extreme Sailing Series- Team NZ's Burling and Davies preview Act 4

by Emirates Team NZ on 25 Jun 2014 Emirates Team NZ's Peter Burling and Ray Davies preview Act 4 of the Extreme Sailing Series to be sailed in St Petersburg, Russia.

Despite it being on the opposite side of the planet, the temperature is not too dissimilar to back home in New Zealand, already in its winter.

It’s the height of summer in St Petersburg, but the temperature is still only single digits, which is right in line with the average annual temperature of St Petersburg of just 5 degrees.

Jet lag hasn’t seemed to be an issue because it is daylight for 22 hours a day, so perception of time is fully out of whack.



It hasn’t slowed preparations for racing with the full team spending the day rigging the EX40 catamaran and lifting it into the frigid waters, before taking a walk to the event side to check out the venue for racing.

'It’s just a massive river we are on here.' Explained helmsman Peter Burling; 'There is current, a heap of river boat traffic and a forecast for light breeze all week, so it’s sure to have its fair share of drama.'

'We just have to be consistent, and keep our head up when the chips are down and battle through for a good result in very tricky conditions,' said tactician Ray Davies summing up the job at hand.

Tomorrow is practice day for the Extreme 40 fleet with racing starting on Thursday.

The crew for Emirates Team New Zealand this week is: Peter Burling, Ray Davies, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas and Edwin De Laat. Emirates Team NZ skipper, Dean Barker, along with wingsail trimmer, Glenn Ashby are sailing in the European A-class Catamaran Championships in France.

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