Kiwi duo in it for long haul
Where Blair Tuke and Peter Burling’s futures lie in the America’s Cup is still a mystery, but that certainly can’t be said about their commitment to SailGP.
It was announced yesterday that from 2023 a New Zealand round on the SailGP circuit will alternate between Christchurch and Auckland, at least through to 2026.
SailGP is sailing’s answer to Formula One and Twenty20 cricket, with short, high intensity racing, taking place in cities around the world. It’s far more fan-friendly and controversy free than the America’s Cup is.
Tuke and Burling, who helped Team New Zealand retain the Auld Mug in March, still haven’t signed on again for the 37th America’s Cup cycle and were reticent to talk about their futures with the team at a media event yesterday.
That was understandable, as this event was about SailGP, not Team NZ. However, there’s no questioning their commitment to the New Zealand SailGP team, of which they’re joint CEOs.
‘‘We’ve really enjoyed the learning phase as CEOs of the team and stepping up to that side of it,’’ Tuke told Stuff when asked if the team was their No 1 priority.
‘‘We’ll have to see what we take on in the future and how it all comes together. A lot of people who do SailGP do different disciplines in sailing as well. So we’ll figure that side of it out.
‘‘But the priority in the last few months has been trying to get some momentum going in the team and really sinking our teeth into it, considering before that we had the America’s Cup and the Olympics and weren’t able to put the time in needed to get a new team off the ground.’’
A key factor for Tuke and Burling in getting involved in SailGP was using it as a vehicle to highlight their Live Ocean charitable trust, which promotes the protection of the world’s oceans.
Tuke and Burling are committed to SailGP for the foreseeable future and they’ll always be the face of the New Zealand team, but Tuke said they might eventually step out of the boat and let others sail it.
‘‘Those things are on the cards, but right now we’re loving the sailing,’’ he said. ‘‘For us as CEOs, we want to get the team into the best position it can be in.
‘‘Us being on the boats can be helpful, but that could happen in the future and the team is in it for the long haul and having a Kiwi boat on this tour as it goes from strength to strength is really important and we’ll keep working hard to make that happen.’’
The penultimate round of the second SailGP season takes place in Sydney next weekend. Having not taken part in the inaugural campaign, the New Zealand team have had to learn on the fly this season and they’ll head to Australia placed fifth out of eighth in the championship.
‘‘It’s been a challenging one,’’ Tuke said.
‘‘The margins are very small for us, coming into this as a unit, we’re the newest team in this league. We’ve done this in a year where we’ve had to rotate a lot of crew members, because not just Pete and I, but a lot of our team was at the Olympics.
‘‘So we had to find replacements and that’s meant we haven’t been able to get that consistency and build momentum. It’s only really been in the last three events where we’ve had a consistent crew and we’ve started to feel more comfortable in all the wind conditions.’’