Tuke seeks some Kiwi comforts
Surfing and diving were on the mind of New Zealand yachting ace Blair Tuke as he savoured a surprise podium finish in Auckland on the latest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Tuke’s Spanish boat Mapfre made up around 130 kilometres on the leaders on a dramatic final day of leg six from Hong Kong and managed to storm into third place.
That preserved their overall race lead and kept Tuke’s chances of yachting’s golden hat-trick alive. He has won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in late 2016, won the America’s Cup last year and is looking to cap that with Volvo Ocean Race glory.
His good mate Peter Burling has the same opportunity but that looks to be disappearing fast with Burling’s Dutch boat Team Brunel coming into Auckland at the tail of the fleet and now lying sixth overall, 19 points behind Mapfre at the halfway stage of the famous race.
After almost 21 days at sea on what has been the longest leg so far, and not being home since last September, Northland-raised Tuke said he was looking forward to soaking up ‘‘as much Kiwi-ness as I can’’ over the next few weeks before the fleet departs for Brazil on March 18.
‘‘It’s been a while since I’ve been back here. First and foremost I want to see friends and family,’’ he said.
But it seems you can’t keep him away from the water.
‘‘I’ll get up to Kerikeri to relax a little bit, do some surfing and free diving and try and grasp as much Kiwi-ness as I can for a few weeks and then we are back to the Southern Ocean.’’
Tuke said he was proud to be a Kiwi as Mapfre received a warm welcome into Auckland yesterday morning behind leg winner AkzaNobel and second-placed Scallywag. Only two minutes separated the first two boats and