Sailing: Tuke and Burling reap another award

Peter Burling, left, and Kerikeri's Blair Tuke took out the 2016 HRG Sailor of the Year award at the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards. Photo/Supplied

A great year keeps getting better for Northlander Blair Tuke and Peter Burling.

The acclaimed 49er skiff pairing were named the winners of the 2016 HRG Sailor of the Year at the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.

This followed a year where they proved they were clearly in a league of their own following a dominant Olympic campaign at Rio, where they had the gold medal well and truly wrapped up before the final race.

Tuke and Burling delivered big time in Rio, culminating in an astonishing regatta at the to take the gold medal by 43 points, the biggest winning margin across all the classes.

The New Zealand pair were assured of a medal after 11 races, assured of gold after 12 races and then won the Rio 2016 49er medal race to secure the Olympic victory in impressive style.

In the nomination period they won two 49er World Championships, as well as being unbeaten in all major regattas in the four-year build up to the Olympic Games

Burling and Tuke made history last year when they won the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy for the third time - a feat no other individual or crew had achieved since it was first awarded in 1963.

This year, the pair pushed that record just a little further out of reach, with their names to be engraved on the historic trophy for 2013, 2014, 2015, and now 2016.