Emirates Team New Zealand

February 15, 2016 By Jack Griffin

ETNZ’s Burling and Tuke continue 49er dominance

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the 2016 World Championships in the 49er, which ended yesterday, 14 February, in Clearwater, Florida. They have now won 23 49er regattas in a row, including the last four World Championships. The last time they were “beaten” was at the 2012 London Olympics, where they took the silver medal behind Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain “Goobs” Jensen, now with Artemis Racing.

Outteridge and Jensen were in second place going into the final, double points medal race in Clearwater, but an OCS (false start) in the medal race dropped them back to sixth place.

Emmett Lazich coaches Outteridge and Jensen, and believes they can win in Rio. It was Lazich who helped plan their buildup to the London Olympics. Burling and Tuke trained together with Outteridge and Jensen under Lazich’s guidance. He knew it would be a risk, possibly helping Burling and Tuke “too much” but the plan worked perfectly in 2012 with gold for the Aussies and silver for the Kiwis in London. Outteridge and Jensen went on to sail for Artemis in San Francisco in 2013 while Burling helmed the winning Kiwi boat in the 2013 Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, with Tuke in the crew. Here’s Lazich in a video interview by Andy Rice during the Worlds last week.

Outteridge clearly has more demands on his time from Artemis than Burling does from ETNZ. He and Jensen should be able to prepare for Rio from May until the Games, in August. Even so, Burling and Tuke are the clear favorites.

We sailing fans get to witness a great rivalry being played out in the America’s Cup and in the Olympics. Let’s keep an eye on this!

February 8, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Team Updates: Emirates Team New Zealand

ETNZ has been sailing the AC45X boat they acquired from Luna Rossa. This boat has a mostly standard AC45 platform. Wheel steering has replaced the tiller. The photo shows a white structure where the center spine meets the main crossbeam. This probably houses hydraulics for wing and board control. Notice also the raised track for the self-tacking jib. To my eye, the beam looks wider than the standard one design AC45 – as if the standard tubular crossbeams had be replaced by longer ones. There are no cockpits and no grinding pedestals. We can be sure there are electrically powered hydraulics – for daggerboard and wing control. ETNZ has said they will launch a more highly modified AC45X test boat, possibly in March.

ETNZ does not list their sailing team roster but skipper and wing trimmer Glenn Ashby and tactician Ray Davies from the 2013 campaign are still with the team. Peter Burling has been helming. Burling’s crew in the 49er, Blair Tuke has also been aboard their AC45F in the AC World Series, where they top the leaderboard. The fifth member of the AC45F crew is Guy Endean. Endean, Tuke and Burling all sailed together and won the 2013 Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in San Francisco.

February 8, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Bermuda AC Village at Dockyard

This week’s issue focuses on team updates – team rosters, AC Class yacht development and ACWS campaigns. On the Cup Experience website, you can always get a team overviews and updates here.

We’ll start with what’s happening for all of the teams in Bermuda – here’s a draft of team base locations in the America’s Cup Village at Dockyard. Oracle and SoftBank Team Japan are operating from the bases shown here. Artemis operates from their main base at Morgan’s Point; the base shown here will be used when racing starts in May 2017. Land Rover BAR, Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand are all operating from bases in their respective countries. They will no doubt be in the bases at Dockyard in early 2017, to launch their race boats and to prepare for the racing in May and June. The landfill for the Public Event Village is nearing completion now. Download this diagram as well as the racing calendars on the America’s Cup Guide page, here.

Download this 1 page overview of the America’s Cup Schedule here.

November 23, 2015 By Jack Griffin

49er Worlds – Gold for Burling/Tuke, Silver for Outteridge/Jensen

Burling and Tuke won the 2015 49er Worlds - San Isidro, Argentine. © Matias Capizzano — Burling and Tuke won the 2015 49er Worlds – San Isidro, Argentina.
© Matias Capizzano

America’s Cup helmsmen and crew faced off again at the 2015 49er World Championships in Argentina. Emirates Team New Zealand’s helmsman Pete Burling and crew Blair Tuke won their 23rd 49er regatta in a row. The last time Burling and Tuke have “lost” a regatta, they picked up the silver medal at London’s 2012 Olympics. At the Olympics the gold medal went to Artemis Racing’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, who took silver at the recent world championships.

What does this mean for the 49er competition at the 2016 Olympics in Rio? Burling and Tuke look like the heavy favorites, with their string of wins. Burling also won the 2015 Moth Worlds, taking that title from Outteridge who had won the previous two Moth Worlds. But a closer look at the scoreline from Argentina shows that the battle could be very close. In the eight qualifying races, Burling and Tuke were dominant, taking first four times but they fared much worse in the Gold Fleet racing. After the first six races races Outteridge and Jensen were in danger of not qualifying and Iain Jensen was battling a stomach flu. They then posted two second place finishes to qualify for the Gold Fleet and had the best scoreline in the second half of the regatta. That said, Burling and Tuke had the gold medal sewn up before the medal race, thanks to their dominance early in the regatta.

Download the complete score sheet here.

Here’s a short report from the event:

November 11, 2015 By Jack Griffin

Burling and Tuke Named ISAF Sailors of the Year

America's Cup helsman for ETNZ, Pete Burling with Blair Tuke 2015 ISAF World Sailors of the Year — Burling & Tuke 2015 ISAF World Sailors of the Year

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have been named ISAF World Sailors of the Year. They have won 22 49er regattas in a row since taking the silver medal at the London Olympics – their last “loss. Tuke said, “It is a really big honour for us to win this award. We don’t sail and race to win these awards, but it is really nice to get these accolades for all the hard work we put in. We are really proud to have won.

“All the nominees have achieved some awesome things this year in our sport, especially Ian Walker for winning the Volvo Ocean Race. We’ve been working hard all year and the results have come our way, not only in the 49er, but also in the other boats we sail. So we are looking ahead and keeping the hammer down towards the Olympics and then towards bringing the Cup back to New Zealand.”