Peter Burling and Blair Tuke after their win - 49er Worlds, - Day 6 - Auckland , December 3-8, - photo © Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com / nz
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for December 13, 2019
First our apologies for the delay in getting this newsletter out, due largely to covering the Hyundai World Championships and trialling/testing new gear and systems in a big regatta.
There is no argument that the Hyundai Worlds for the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 classes were a huge success - from several perspectives.
Firstly it was the first time that three Olympic classes had simultaneously held their world championships in New Zealand. That is a huge challenge for any organising committee, and particularly one which had no real legacy plans and organisation to dust off and adapt for the current regatta.
In this part of the SW Pacific, only Melbourne has this capability - and has been able to attract any major event that is on offer and which they wish to chase.
Now Auckland has that same capability, and in some respects is superior to Melbourne..
With several course areas, within a reasonably easy sail/tow, Auckland is able to offer a real variety of sailing conditions - ranging from a seabreeze rolling into the North Shore regatta areas, along with a nice swell and seaway. Other courses, to the east offer flat water, albeit with a confused chop and tidal influence along with plenty of windshifts.
The point being that race officials can almost "dial a condition" and switch the racing around to ask plenty of questions of the competitors.
To some extent the situation was a little like the Rio Olympics - where each day some classes were raced outside on the ocean course, and the others on the inshore courses. The difference between Auckland and Rio is that on the ocean courses at Rio sea conditions became so extreme that several of the classes could not have raced outside on some days for safety reasons. Auckland is not in that category.
Melbourne's geography does provide a good variance as the breeze switches between the northerly and southerly - but it doesn't offer the same ability to switch sea/wind/tide as can be done in Auckland.
The new Hyundai Marine Sports Centre is just magnificent and a tribute to all who have had the foresight and energy to make this project turn into a reality.
Although the finishing touches were still being applied during the Oceania series and World Championships, it was hard to believe that New Zealand has a sailing facility that is equal to or better than the best standard overseas - and one which is orientated around dinghy sailing rather than being a keelboat club. With all respect to host club Royal Akarana YC, while it has been synonymous with offshore keelboat sailing, it is now a broad based sailing club.
The live television coverage was also ground breaking - whether it will continue with the 49er, FX and Nacra 17 classes remains to be seen. However again it was amazing to see live TV content being shot on the water in Auckland - a sight you would normally only see at an Olympic Regatta.
Another key advantage of the new Hyundai facility is the adjacent Orakei marina, and even more so with berthing for coach boats and others just around the corner at the Outboard Boating Club marina.
Ngati Whatua's insistence that Okahu Bay be cleared of moored boats has made a huge difference to the ambience of the area, and it is great to see this piece of water returned to its beautiful natural state. With the breakdown of the "wave fence" Okahu Bay was always a marginal mooring area - and the area is now open to a variety of watersports including sailing - and hopefully it, along with the Hyundai Water Sports Centre, will be heavily used in the future. The area is now a great venue for teams racing - offering sheltered water and excellent spectator viewing.
In short, the venue works very well indeed, and those involved both on the facility and organisation of the regatta deserve all the accolades they receive.
The feature that really marked this regatta out, was despite its size (bigger than the Olympic Sailing Regatta), was its informality and willingness to get things done, and congratulations to all involved. Hopefully an organisational blueprint has been created which can be used for other multi-class events.
From a sailing perspective, for Kiwis, with the exception of the 49er class, the regatta did not deliver the results that many had hoped.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke certainly performed under pressure, but along the way proved they are only human, with a capsize on the opening day and with a broken tiller extension plus a slip overboard on the last. Maybe they lacked a little time in the boat - but that creates pressure, and those two thrive on a challenge - which they got in spades in Auckland.
The Kiwi 49er fleet had a good regatta, and Logan Dunning Beck with crew Oscar Gunn grew a new set of legs and visibly sailed on confidence - particularly in the back end of the regatta. Their fifth overall was an outstanding result. A third New Zealand crew Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie just missed the cut for the Medal Race. Three Kiwi crews in the top ten, along with a world championship win would have been an unbelievable result. The top Australian crew was 15th overall.
Only two 49er FX crews entered from New Zealand, former World Champions and Olympic Silver medalists Molly Meech and Alex Maloney finished lower than where they probably expected. However in all analysis it needs to be taken down to a race by race, and even a mark by mark level. Meech and Maloney suffered from a couple of placings in the 20's - one of which they were able to drop. But then so too did 2016 Gold medalists, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) - compounding their woes with a capsize in the final race.
But in the grand scheme of things that played little part in the overall result with the Dutch crew of Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz winning by a 14pt margin - the largest of the three classes. Both the Gold and Silver medalists from Rio will go into the 2020 Worlds in Geelong with an agenda to build on the Auckland result. The disappointing aspect of the Worlds in New Zealand was that there were only two New Zealand crews competing in the 49erFX.
No New Zealand crews made the medal race in the Nacra 17. To some this was not surprising given the three crew changes that occurred earlier this year, and it is clear from this result - with the top three Kiwi crews finishing 17th, 19th and 20th in a 52 boat fleet, that there is a lot of work to be done to get to Olympic selection standard. For a couple of the Kiwi crews there were top three placings dotting their score card, however consistency is the key - and with only a month or two left to achieve it.
Clearly there is a lot of work to be done to get back into the position that can be considered to be "medal capable" if one of them is to be selected for the 2020 Olympics. While that decision can ostensibly wait until May/June 2020, it will more likely have to be made after the 2020 Worlds in Geelong which finish in mid-February and whether one or more crews will continue on in a selection process based in European regattas. However at some point there has to be a selection decision made - and one that will allow the chosen crew to train properly for the Olympics. Indeed, Great Britain, the top performing country at the Sailing Olympics announced in early October 2019 their Tokyo 2020 team selection in eight of the ten Olympic events.
America's Cup update
The America's Cup - well, the Kiwi effort at least, appeared to go on hold while the Hyundai Worlds took place.
Elsewhere in the World, Luna Rossa continued their work up in Cagliari, Sardinia. INEOS Team UK has packed up to join them for the European winter and will remain there, one assumes until the conclusion of the first event in the America's Cup World Series in late April. Similarly for NYYC American Magic, who have also packed up their AC75 and will once again train throughout the northern hemisphere winter in the balmy climes of Pensacola, Florida.
Since their return from the 49er Worlds, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have been back in action on Te Aihe, putting in four hour to nine hour days on the water.
Watching some of the sessions, they seem to follow an earlier pattern when there has been significant upgrades put on the boat. Some fast runs punctuated by huddles with the chase boats as the test results are evaluated and then another run or two.
More ETNZ sailing crew members are on Olympic duties this week, with John Junior and Andy Maloney competing in the Finn Gold Cup being sailed in Melbourne. After the first day of racing they were both on top of the leaderboard - with a first and fifth placing each from the two races sailed. Fingers crossed for another top result. We have a report and images from the first day of the Finn Gold Cup in this edition.
For all the latest news from NZ and around the world see the Top 50 stories below.
Between newsletters, you can follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com/nz or by scrolling to the top of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.
Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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