‘Pistol’ Pete ready to fire up Kiwis
It seems ‘‘Pistol’’ Pete Burling is living up to his nickname with Team New Zealand’s helmsman proving increasingly quick on the draw.
Burling’s lack of match-racing experience, especially the heated duels in the starting box, appeared to be his only handicap as he transferred his golden success from Olympic fleet racing to the brutal one-on-one format of the America’s Cup.
But Murray Jones, a five-time winner of the Cup and Team New Zealand’s performance coach, has been quick to ease any concerns around the syndicate’s young gun ahead of the regatta’s start in Bermuda this weekend.
Burling and his Olympics partner Blair Tuke form two-thirds of the Kiwi afterguard with skipper Glenn Ashby in a new-look crew, responsible for making the key decisions at high speed.
Jones believes the new class of 50-foot foiling catamarans introduced for this 35th edition of the Cup has evened out the experience levels that can be so crucial on yachting’s biggest stage.
‘‘The boats are completely different to what we have sailed in the past,’’ Jones said.
‘‘Everyone has had to learn new America’s Cup techniques and ways to sailing the boats and different strategies in the pre-starts.
‘‘I think Pete has taken that on as well as anyone out there, so I’m not concerned about that area.
‘‘The boys haven’t come from a match-racing background but they have come from a really high performance sailing background. They understand the game.
‘‘It doesn’t take too much to guide them at all because they understand what they have to achieve.’’
Burling is a rare talent, a onein-a-generation sailor with the uncanny ability to read conditions, place his boat accordingly and maximise his crew.
Jones believes that sort of gift can be transferred across classes as greats like Sir Russell Coutts had proven.
The 26-year-old Burling has already shown a ruthless streak in practice racing.
That’s highlighted by the frustration levels he drew out of Britain’s Ben Ainslie, an America’s Cup winner four years ago and the most decorated sailor in Olympics history.
Burling has been winning his starts, a crucial element in these quick-fire races.
Jones, who has won with Team New Zealand, Alinghi and Oracle and been inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, predicts this cup to be the closest in his 23 years of involvement.
But he likes where the Kiwis are placed entering the double round-robin phase and, importantly, feels there is room for the development all teams will be seeking as the month-long battle unfolds.
‘‘We are in a good position to improve as quickly, if not quicker, than most other said.
Jones likes the mix of the crew. Team New Zealand have recruited wisely as they went down their radical pedal-powered approach.
They have plenty of power in the ‘‘cyclors’’ department with the likes of Olympic cyclist Simon van Velthooven and Olympic rower Joe Sullivan.
And specialist yachting talent such as Josh Junior, Andy Maloney and Guy Endean have been willing to sail in lycra.
With a leg-power advantage estimated to be as high as 30 per cent over their rivals’ traditional grinders, the Kiwis have used that to provide stability to their foiling, making them arguably the slickest teams,’’ Jones through their turns and with no shortage of straight out speed.
‘‘There are a lot of new faces there and there is a lot of enthusiasm – young, clever people, good sailors – it’s quite an exciting and refreshing group of people,’’ Jones said.
‘‘All the boys in the sailing team contribute an enormous amount.
‘‘Obviously, Peter and Blair have brought a lot in with their experience from smaller boats and it’s working really well – that coordination between the sailing and design teams which is bringing a lot of results pretty quickly at the moment.’’
But with defenders Oracle showing slick speed and their surrogate challenger Team Japan also Team New Zealand schedule for Louis Vuitton qualifiers: Tomorrow: v Team France Sunday: v Oracle Team USA Monday: v Team Japan, v BAR (Gt Britain)
Tuesday: v Artemis Racing (Sweden) Wednesday: v Artemis Racing Thursday: v BAR Friday: lay day June 3: v Team Japan, v Team France.
June 4: v Oracle Team USA fast, there can be no rest for Team New Zealand.
Jones says much of his work during the regatta will be about keeping an even keel to a campaign that is sure to have some rocky moments.
‘‘There will definitely be ups and downs, there will be races we should have won that we don’t win. It’s the nature of these boats,’’ Jones said, pointing to practice breakdowns and results.
‘‘That’s going to happen all the way through. You do one bad gybe and you’ll lose the race.
‘‘It’s a matter of trying to keep it together and not make mistakes, or less mistakes than the other team. It will be like that all the way through.’’