Dalton blesses Burling Tokyo bid
Team New Zealand have given stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke the green light to mount another Olympic campaign among the defence of the America’s Cup.
Burling and Tuke, Rio gold medallists in the 49er, are yet to officially announce their plan to be at Tokyo 2020 but that’s their intention and they will again have the blessings of their professional bosses after they managed to successfully blend the two last time, doubling up with America’s Cup glory.
It’s a tighter time frame for 2021 with the Cup match starting in Auckland in March rather than June as it was in Bermuda following the traditional August scheduling of the Olympics.
That seems to be the only real concern though the time frame is compressed further by the planned Christmas Cup which Team New Zealand will want to flex their muscles at, sailed on their home waters immediately ahead of the challenger series.
‘‘They will also have to dovetail their Olympic buildup with the America’s Cup buildup regattas. PHIL GIFFORD REPORTS That’s all on the table at the moment but we will work through that,’’ Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said as he gave an update on several key areas.
Dalton said the process of signing up the sailing crew was ‘‘well advanced and we are getting the people we want’’.
Skipper Glenn Ashby was on a retainer and they were looking to finalise a deal with the Australian who would be a key man for the defence.
Like Burling and Tuke, Bermuda ‘‘cyclors’’ Andy Maloney and Josh Junior were looking at an Olympics campaign in the Finn class though pB2 only one will eventually qualify for Tokyo.
Junior finished seventh in the Finn at Rio while Maloney narrowly missed selection there in the Lasers class.
Olympic cyclist Simon van Velthooven and Olympic rower Joe Sullivan, whose grunt was used to front the successful cycling power approach in Bermuda, were now looking to build sailing skills because of the different demands of the 75-foot foiling monohull to be used in the next Cup.
‘‘There are other good guys that have approached us out of the Olympic classes. We are spoiled for riches,’’ Dalton said.
He was content to see his sailors keeping active with their own projects rather than as a team for the moment. That included Burling, Tuke and Carlo Huisman sailing the current Volvo Ocean Race and Ashby backing up his recent 15th Australian A Class catamaran title with a campaign in the new SuperFoiler Grand Prix to be sailed around Australia this summer.
That was in contrast to rival syndicates from Britain, Italy and New York mounting contesting the TP52 Super Series around the Mediterranean this year.
‘‘It’s a brilliant circuit and we love the TPs. But we didn’t see much bang for our buck doing that,’’ Dalton said.
‘‘It really doesn’t bear that much resemblance to what we are going to be doing with the new boat.
‘‘For those other teams, they are building and they need to bring their combinations together. We already have our combinations.
‘‘Our core crew are keeping busy in other areas, they are racing all the time and that’s good.’’
Dalton said the design team was on schedule to deliver the class rule for the radical new foiling monster on March 31 as set down in the protocol.