. . . that winning feeling
They’ve now won five world titles but New Zealand yachting stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke rate their latest as their greatest.
The Kiwis overcame gear failure, a near-overboard incident and a fired-up German crew of Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel to seal another accolade in their young but storied careers that include Olympic gold and America’s Cup success as well as world sailor of the year honours.
They started the day 12-points clear and over three races, including the double points 10-boat medal race, saw the Germans whittle that down to six.
But that margin, despite the heart-in-mouth moments, was more than enough to bring huge smiles to Burling and Tuke on a day that became a survival contest as 24-knot winds and a brutal northerly chop hit the course.
‘‘It’s definitely the top, no doubt,’’ Tuke beamed.
‘‘We said going into it this would be right up with the Olympics . . . racing a world championships on your home waters. It always feels good when you do in that sort of fashion, when it comes down to the wire.
‘‘Ideally we would have sailed a bit better in the morning and wrapped it up. But whichever way we get it, we’re pretty happy.
‘‘It’s just unreal to do it in topend conditions on Auckland harbour in front of all our friends and supporters. This is very, very special.’’
Added Burling: ‘‘It’s been special to be sailing off a ramp you’ve sailed off hundreds of times and to be able to go and do this in your home waters.’’
Burling put his uncharacteristic slip-ups down to the conditions. He twice missed his footing while changing tacks, the first time he broke the tiller he steers with and they were forced to retire.
The second incident, on the first beat of the medal race, saw Burling slide off the side of the boat and he desperately managed to grab on with a hand while Tuke steadied the boat. They dropped to 10th and then put their heads down to pull off a remarkable recovery job over the next three legs.
‘‘You just have to get on with the job and make sure you don’t make any more mistakes,’’ Burling said.
‘‘We are really proud of how we came back into it and kept the rig upright. They were pretty topend 49er conditions and I think probably half the fleet would have had a swim before the end.’’
The high winds caused chaos in the women’s 49erFX medal ace where Kiwis Alex Maloney and Molly Meech were among several capsizes but recovered to end the race seventh and finish the championships sixth.
Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz of the Netherlands took the precaution of lowering their gennaker on the final run to finish the medal race third and claim the world championship.
Olympic champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (Brazil) had to settle for second after a spectacular crash.
No Kiwi crews made the medal race of the Nacra 17 mixed crew catamarans. Olivia Mackay and Jason Saunders were the best of the New Zealanders in 17th.
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson dropped to 19th while Gemma Jones and Josh Porebski finished 20th.