Sailing: Cup prize for teamwork

Blair Tuke, left, and Peter Burling showed they are world-class sailors in any kind of vessel.

Tauranga sailor Peter Burling has had another amazing year of success on the water in 2013. He gives the Bay of Plenty Times a rare insight into how his crew won in San Francisco.

It has been an awesome couple of months for Blair (Tuke) and me, winning the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup with a great group of our mates, then winning the 49er World Champs.

The Red Bull Youth Americas Cup was an amazing opportunity being able to race an AC45 against the world's best under-25 sailors, just before the America's Cup started on the same course.

I helmed, Blair was on tactics, with the rest of the crew Andy Maloney, Jason Saunders, Sam Meech, Guy Endean and Jono Spurdle. A really enjoyable regatta with everyone getting on really well and working hard together to reach the end goal.

As well as the seven sailors we had Grant Beck and Richard Burling supporting us. We could have done with a team of 15, but in true Kiwi style the nine of us got stuck into the work that was required.

Long days were the norm with a huge amount of boat work needed. We often left home before 7am and didn't return until 9pm or later.

As a group we learnt very quickly. We were allowed very limited time on the water as the course was being used by the AC72s in the afternoons.

All our boat manoeuvres were choreographed before we went out, time on the water was spent mastering our manoeuvres and communication between the six guys on the boat.

We felt ready for racing after three weeks of training.

Launching took about an hour and a half - the wing sail was wheeled out from the storage tent so as not to fly away, craned on to the hull for rigging and the whole lot then craned on to the mooring.

During the first official practice racing day, we hit something, smashing the centreboard case's bottom bearing, and on the next leg we broke a SS pad eye fitting holding the front beam kingpost in position. We had to limp back to the crane for an unscheduled haul out and missed the speed trial. All hands on deck - and the boat was launched again that evening ready for the first day's racing.

After the first day of racing our camber line for the wing sail had to be fixed - another haul out, to get the wing out and run a new line.

Fortunately for us, there were no more issues after this.

Racing went well and we lead the regatta from the first day. Two great starts on day three were converted into race wins giving us a huge lead, and the final race saw us win the regatta and become the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup champions.