NZ find speed in Sailgp
One of the mysteries of Sailgp so far has been why the usually dominant Team New Zealand was just so slow.
Going into this year’s Great Britain Sailgp event in July in Plymouth, the team, led by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – previously a relentlessly successful partnership in Olympic 49er sailing and the America’s Cup – had yet to make it to a regatta final. Over the season, the Kiwis had only secured five race wins from 50 starts, leading coach Ray Davies to describe their race record as ‘a pretty ugly scorecard’.
Davies, tasked with shaking up the under-performing squad, had worked through changes with the team. Before Plymouth this included adding former Olympic 470 Gold Medallist Jo Aleh as one of the team’s strategists, alternating with Liv Mackay.
In Plymouth the work paid off, with Burling and crew not only getting to their first podium race but going on to beat reigning champions Australia and Denmark in the medal race finale.
When the circuit moved to Denmark a couple of weeks later, the New Zealand Sailgp team dominated in light and shifty conditions winning all four races back to back. Besides ending Australia’s fiveregatta winning streak this has moved the New Zealand team to 2nd overall in the series, behind Australia.
Australian skipper Tom Slingsby was impressed by the team’s change in performance. “No one has ever won every race,” he said after racing in Copenhagen.
“We didn’t even see [New Zealand] today – they were either way out in front of us or about to pass. We’ll have to go away to review the data to see what they’re doing. We may be leading in the points but they’re without a doubt the benchmark team.”