TNZ stars wary of ‘young kids’
Blair Tuke will head back to his roots when he sails at this weekend’s New Zealand open teams racing national championships in Kerikeri but fully expects to get ‘‘dusted up’’ by some of this country’s best young talent.
Tuke spent much of his youth sailing teams racing, and even participated at the 2011 teams racing world championships in Perth, but hasn’t had time to do much of it in recent years.
It also hasn’t helped that he’s too big. Teams racing is done in 420s, the youth version of the 470, with an optimum combined weight in the double-handed dinghy of about 130kg.
Tuke will sail with his brother Jesse in a Kerikeri team that also contains fellow Olympic class sailor and Team New Zealand team-mate Andy Maloney and ocean racer Brad Farrand.
It’s just one team stacked full of named sailors, and the likes of Peter Burling, Sam Meech, Alex Maloney, Molly Meech, Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson, who have all been named in the New Zealand team to sail at the Tokyo Olympics, will also compete in the three-day regatta.
Finn world champion and Team New Zealand grinder Josh Junior will also take part and has taken a novel approach to selecting his team-mate.
‘‘I’m taking Nelsen Meecham up, who’s an Opti sailor who’s been going pretty well and is the son of an old boy at Team New Zealand,’’ Junior said.
‘‘The total crew weight was meant to be about 130kg and with me weighing 100kg I needed someone pretty small. I’m pretty excited to sail with him.
‘‘He’s been sending me some videos of teams racing because I haven’t done much, so he’s been schooling me up. He might be the tactician, I think.’’
Tuke played a leading hand in rounding up all the NZL Sailing Team members taking part. All have returned to the water recently after lockdown but all face uncertain futures as they contemplate a largely domestic-based buildup to next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
‘‘An old mate of mine I used to sail with, Reuben Corbett, sent a message to say the open teams racing nationals were on and, considering we are in New Zealand and not getting a heap of racing in at the moment I thought it would be a pretty cool idea to do it with a few mates of mine from Kerikeri,’’ Tuke said.
‘‘I then sent a message around the rest of the Olympic team to see who was keen and basically everyone said they were.
‘‘We are all keen to try to get as much experience as we can racing at the moment and to learn. There’s a feeling of missing out on the racing [because of Covid-19]. For some people it’s going to be new but for half of us, especially those of us from Kerikeri, this is where we started sailing.’’
Teams racing is popular at secondary school level and features a team of three boats taking on another team of three boats in short, five-minute races with the lowest combined score winning.
There are several experienced teams racing sailors among the 14 teams taking part, including last year’s champions headed by Corbett’s Kiwis Team Racing, as well as a team containing some of this country’s best young talent.
‘‘We are going to turn up and get dusted by some young kids, basically,’’ Tuke laughed.
‘‘We are all a little bit big and the weather is looking quite light but I’m really looking forward to it.’’