Like most, Peter Burling’s been looking forward to a break over the holidays.
“It’s really important everyone gets some time off to recharge the batteries,” says the Team New Zealand skipper. “It’s definitely been quite a busy year.”
2024 is set to be even bigger, as Burling and Team NZ build towards the America’s Cup, set to get underway in Barcelona in late August. The boat they’ll use to defend the Cup is currently under construction, with a launch date sometime in the second quarter of the new year. Until then, it’s all about development.
“Straight back into testing,” says Burling. “The other AC40 gets back from Jeddah relatively early 2024. So we're looking forward to starting up our two-boat program again and just rolling through into launching the race boat, shifting over to Barcelona.”
Team NZ’s attempting something no syndicate has done since the New York Yacht Club’s long hold on the America’s Cup was broken in 1983 - a second successful defence. The early signs are promising, Burling and his crew won the second AC Preliminary Regatta in Jeddah in early December and reached the final of the first event in Villanova, Spain in September, only for it to be called off due to a lack of wind.
“We don't get very many opportunities to really test ourselves as a group,” adds Burling. “We put a bit of effort into that and to come out with a really good showing was something we're really proud of.”
Both of those regattas were sailed in the identical AC40s, smaller than the AC75 that will compete for the Auld Mug in Barcelona.
“Always incredibly hard in the Cup to tell exactly how things are going because the boat is such a big part of it. We're really happy with how things are progressing and tracking, but at the same time the intrigue with the Cup is you never quite know how you're going until the end.”
The America’s Cup might be Burling’s big goal in 2024 but it’s not his only focus. There’s no Olympics this time - after collecting medals at the last three Games with Blair Tuke in the 49er class - but he will split time with the SailGP team he leads alongside Tuke, and featuring the bulk of Team NZ’s sailing team.
“The two events complement each other incredibly well. In the America's Cup we do a whole heap of training, testing, development. And in SailGP we do a whole heap of racing. So it's been incredible to push your skills forward as a yachtie to be able to do both.”
Away from sailing, Burling and Tuke’s Live Ocean conservation foundation continues to raise awareness for Aotearoa’s marine environments.
“We've got such a beautiful country down here at the bottom of the Earth and we really do need to look after it. Not many people know that 94% of our country is ocean.”
Burling became a strong voice for the environment through the charity, with the kind of leadership that’s already amassed two America’s Cup wins, an Olympic gold medal, multiple world championships across various classes, and twice named male World Sailor of the Year, one of those with Tuke.
“As a sailor and someone who spends so much time out there on the ocean in New Zealand, in other parts of the world, I really feel like we have a responsibility to look after it,” says Burling.
“And it's not something you can wait another 20 years or whatever before you really start caring about it. We've got to start making positive change now. Obviously incredibly exciting but an interesting time in New Zealand at the moment on that front.
“We really have some opportunities to step up on that global stage, to be an example to the world. I really hope we can do that.”
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