Familiar frustrations for NZ in Bermuda

A new season but familiar frustrations for New Zealand in the SailGP league.

The powerful team led by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke finished the season-opening regatta in Bermuda in sixth place out of the nine teams.

After a disappointing first day New Zealand rebounded to show their potential yesterday by winning the fourth fleet race, edging Denmark in a thrilling duel at the front of the pack.

But a costly seventh in the fifth and final fleet race won by Australia saw them miss out on the podium race yet again.

The run of results for New Zealand read: 7, 3, 8, 1, 7.

For a second season team they were shown up by new entry Canada, led by New Zealander Phil Robertson, who qualified for the podium race against double champions Australia and Great Britain.

There was no stopping Tom Slingby’s Aussie outfit though, as he started season three just as he finished the last, reaching 68 kph to comfortably win from Ben Ainslie’s British outfit with Canada third.

The Kiwis were guilty of some sloppy starts, and in a highly competitive fleet it’s hard to work through the opponents on the tight courses in quick-fire races.

Burling saw some positives for his team, though lamented a lack of consistency, something that plagued them last season.

‘‘It was great to bounce back after a tough day yesterday. We had a really good battle with Denmark for most of the way around the course and finally got them down that last run. It was pretty exciting for the team and shows that if we can put a race together, we can be at the front of the pack,’’ Burling said.

‘‘In that last race, we knew we had to take some big risks to get ahead of Great Britain, Australia or Canada and unfortunately it just didn’t pay off.’’