Burling and Tuke the best again

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have taken New Zealand’s top honour in sailing for two years running after being named as 2014 House of Travel Sailor of the Year at last night's Awards ceremony in Auckland.

“It’s a big honour to win this Award,” says Peter Burling. “We had a great year last year, so to do it all again, to build on that is just brilliant.”

This just days after they arrived back home this week from their final 49er regatta of the year, winning the South American 49er championships which took place at the 2016 Olympic venue in Rio De Janerio.

The win continued their unbeaten run of winning every 49er regatta they’ve entered since the London Olympics in 2012.

It was always going to be a tough ask to win after missing the first three races of the regatta having arrived late from the ISAF World Sailor of the year awards in Palma de Mallorca where they had been nominated for the top prize.

The prospect of beginning their regatta in last position didn’t seem to faze the duo who relished the chance to get back out on the 49er into some tight racing action.

“I love how close the racing is. You jump back in the 49er and because its one design and everyone has the same equipment and you have to sail better than the other guy to win a race, ”Burling said.

“We didn’t expect to win at all, but as the regatta progressed and we managed to string some good races together, prospects looked brighter.

“It wasn’t until the last race that we realised we had a real chance at winning. We were only a couple points off the lead and we managed to go out there and win the last race,” Tuke said.

“Most of the top teams from around the world were there and with 23 or 24 boats, racing was really tight.”

The result highlighted their dominance in the highly competitive Olympic class.

With the 7th regatta win of 2014 sewn up the pair are home in New Zealand and can pack the 49er away in the shed for the year, “That’s the 49er racing done for the year, we certainly have done our fair stint, but its changing over into moth mode now really to get ready for the Moth Worlds in January.”

Burling and Tuke are two of five Emirates Team New Zealand sailors including Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby and Ray Davies sailing in the 2015 Moth Worlds taking place in Sorrento Melbourne in January. To add spice to the regatta the event organisers are expecting around 15 - 20 America’s Cup stars all battling it out.