Pressure builds as Kiwis look to reverse form
They have delivered in the America’s Cup but the pressure is mounting on New Zealand Sail GP bosses Peter Burling and Blair Tuke as they head into this weekend’s second round of the foiling catamaran series in Chicago.
The New Zealanders finished a disappointing sixth out of the nine competing teams in the opening round of season three in Bermuda last month.
They had finished fifth in their debut season in the high-octane series which uses identical boats and features most of the big names in America’s Cup sailing like Jimmy Spithill and Sir Ben Ainslie.
The New Zealand performance last season was mitigated by lots of chopping and changing among the squad and disrupted by Burling and Tuke’s Tokyo Olympics campaign.
But it still grated the pair that the New Zealand team failed to get into one of the final races for the top three teams during the campaign, and there were high hopes with a more stable team they would improve at the start of season three in Bermuda. But the poor showing has only ramped up the pressure.
The New Zealand team has Team New Zealand’s sailing coach Ray Davies on board for this campaign and they will be at full strength for the action on Sunday and Monday on Lake Michigan.
Andy Maloney missed the Bermuda event due to his wife giving birth to their first child but is back for round two.
Wing trimmer Tuke acknowledges they have to start getting better results or they could be forced into some tough decisions.
“There’s no hiding that we were pretty disappointed after the first race of season three,” Tuke said.
“It was one of the ones that we really started to feel like we were sailing the boat well, and we had some good confidence going into it thinking that we could really push for that final three. But yeah, when it came down to the race weekend, we didn’t perform and weren’t good enough to make the final three.
“But there’s also a lot of positives to take out of how we are going as a team. With 10 more events for the season, it’s a long road ahead so we just have to keep persisting. There’s no lack of drive from the team.”
But what if the results don’t improve, do they look at making changes?
“That’s certainly right. As the CEOs of the team, we care about the performance of the team. And right now, we’re 100 per cent confident with the sailing team.
“But it’s been a steep learning curve. And we haven’t shied away from that,” Tuke said.
His thoughts were echoed by skipper Burling, who acknowledged the buck stops with him with regards to the performance of the boat.
“It’s sport right, you’ve got to keep evolving and adapting,” Burling said. “But right now, we’ve definitely already made a lot of changes. We’ve got people like Ray Davies on board. We’ve rejigged a lot of things on the boat. And now I feel it’s just trying to figure out whether that’s the right answer.”
However, he appears to be relishing the challenge.
“There’s always pressure and I think there was a lot of pressure in the late part of last season. That’s something that we really enjoy,” Burling said.
“If there’s not pressure and if there’s not something on the line, then you probably shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing. Now we’ve got the rest of the season to go and prove that we’ve made the right decisions with the direction we’re taking.”
While the New Zealand team is likely to have an extended run together assuming results start to improve in season three, Burling and Tuke are also casting their eyes forward to what next year could look like as they expect to have to devote more time to Team New Zealand as the America’s Cup defence starts to ramp up.
“We’re already looking ahead to next year and how we start planning around potentially having not the whole crew there all the time. But yeah, that’s quite a way away. But back to the whole longevity of the team, we need to start getting experience to a wider talent pool and a wider group of sailors,” Tuke said.
Tuke hinted they would be looking to bring in more talented sailors into their Sail GP environment to build depth when the inevitable clashes with the America’s Cup occur.
“We are going to have to keep thinking hard as to how do we grow that talent pool, younger people getting involved.
“It’s about growing everyone throughout the team and we’re going to need to get a wider pool than just the athletes we’ve got.”
Sail GP Season 3 continues this weekend at the United States Sail Grand Prix, Chicago.