Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta set to be 49er arm wrestle
by Yachting New Zealand & Richard Gladwell/Sail-World 31 Jan 2019 03:52 GMT
31 January 2019
Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) - 49er - Day 4 - Hempel Sailing World Championships, Aarhus - August 2018 © Sailing Energy / World Sailing
One of the most anticipated battles of the sailing world for 2019 will take place at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta starting tomorrow.
Defending Olympic and America's Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke will come up against challengers Logan Dunning-Beck and Oscar Gunn as well as Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey.
Burling and Tuke have been out of the class since their Gold medal win in Rio, fitting in an America's Cup campaign and a Volvo Ocean Race between Rio and tomorrow's Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta . The Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta will provide a vital indicator for other top 49er crews worldwide as to the form of Burling and Tuke and whether they will be in contention in Tokyo - if they get selected.
Dunning-Beck and Gunn were the top performed Kiwi crew in the 2018 49er World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, where they qualified New Zealand in the 49er for the 2020 Olympics, with four top three places, and are now in the invidious position of having to defend that slot against the current Olympic champions.
Porebski is also in fine form, having come very close to winning the JJ Giltinan Trophy for 18ft skiffs in Sydney last year, placing second behind NZ's Honda Marine and ahead of all the Australian fleet. Last weekend, sailing in the 18ft skiff nationals on Auckland harbour, they turned the tables on Honda Marine - who had an indifferent regatta. With new crew Trent Rippey, he too will be looking to unseat Burling and Tuke in the super-hot 49er fleet which has attracted 13 entries - including two from Korea.
In the other classes this years Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta is also a significant one for this country’s top Olympic class sailors and many kick off their 2019 racing programmes at this weekend’s Regatta.
With the Tokyo Olympics only 18 months away, the process of qualification becomes a focus later in the year. New Zealand qualified in six of the ten Olympic events in Aarhus, and if past selection practice is followed that could be the maximum size of the 2020 Olympic sailing team.
The Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta is New Zealand's premier Olympic and youth classes regatta and more than 150 competitors will line up at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club when racing in the three-day regatta gets under way on Friday.
As mentioned it will be notable for the return to competition of Olympic and four-time 49er world champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who announced last year their intention to try to win back-to-back gold in Tokyo.
“For them, the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta is a good first hitout to a busy year,” Yachting New Zealand high performance manager Ian Stewart said. “The Rio gold medallists have been training with the wider 49er squad based out of the Royal Akarana Yacht Club.
“I’m always impressed with how willing they are to work in with our developing sailors, and their engagement in the local yachting scene.
“It’s not that often that our youth sailors get to rig up alongside our Olympic guys and that’s a special feature of this weekend.”
The Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta also doubles as one of the selection events for the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team to compete at this year’s youth sailing world championships in Poland. The New Zealand team won a record-equalling four medals at last year’s youth worlds in the United States.
This weekend’s regatta is not only important for the sailors but also the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, given they are also hosting the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 world championships at the end of the year. The club opened their impressive new clubrooms earlier this week and the racing this weekend will give them an opportunity to test out race courses and systems on and off the water.
New Zealand’s top 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 sailors have based themselves at the club this summer and have been joined by a handful of international teams also keen to check out the venue.
There will be a number of international crews competing at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta, with healthy contingents from Australia, South Korea and Japan.
“For our guys, it’s the start of quite a significant year,” Stewart said. “It kicks off their season before they head to Europe and then onto the Olympic venue in Enoshima. Our sailors view this as a really purposeful training regatta.”
The Laser Radial will be the biggest fleet, with 24 entries, and there will also be a kiteboarding test event – kiteboarding was recently included on the Olympic programme for the 2024 Paris Olympics.