America's Cup will not distract duo from Rio goal, says Burling

WORLD'S BEST: Peter Burling (left) and Blair Tuke celebrate after winning another 49er title in England last week. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

Winning a gold medal at next year's Rio Olympics is still Peter Burling's major goal.

The 24-year-old Tauranga sailor is about to face one of the busiest periods in his yachting career, balancing his 49er Olympic expectations and skippering Team New Zealand at the start of the 2017 America's Cup qualifying series.

"Rio is the major goal. It is not an easy process to go through doing an Olympic campaign and a damn sight harder to try and get a medal," Burling said. " [Blair Tuke and I] know how much effort went in to get a silver last time. We are under no illusion that has to be the priority and I see the [America's] Cup stuff that we are doing as a benefit to that at the moment.

"Team New Zealand see it as a massive advantage having us really savvy on the racecourse and up to date with all the touchy-feely things that help you get a boat around a track slightly quicker than someone else."

The pollution in the waterways in and around Rio continues to cause concern. Burling has spent time there and says conditions are "a bit tricky. The sailing is nice there but the water is definitely not nice. It makes you appreciate home again. Just don't open your mouth when you get splashed."

Burling was home in Tauranga for just a week after winning another 49er world title with his long-term crewmate Tuke, making 18 straight major regatta wins since they were beaten into a silver medal at the London Olympics.

They will join Team New Zealand for intensive testing before the first of three rounds of the America's Cup World Series qualifiers in Portsmouth in July, then Gothenburg, Sweden, in August and Hamilton, Bermuda, in October. Overall ranking position in the series determines the starting points score of the teams in the America's Cup qualifiers in 2017.

Burling says he can't wait to take on the very best sailors in the world.

"All the other skippers will be there like Ben Ainslie, Jimmy Spithill and Dean Barker, who are all really good guys in their own right and have done massive amounts in the sailing world. To be able to line up against those boys is pretty cool. I am really looking forward to that challenge.

"But Team New Zealand has probably done the least amount of sailing in the AC45f so we are going to have a massive learning curve to try and get used to sailing these type of small foiling boats. But we are confident and have some really good sailors left.

"The first World Series event is in Portsmouth, which is Ben Ainslie's base, so we are going there to do a week's training with the four remaining sailing team members and a few young guys we are testing out.

"With all the changes going on we still have a really strong, good group of guys really dedicated to bringing the cup back."

Burling's group will be testing the AC45f that now has a hydrofoil in it that he says "makes the boat really fly".

"The last America's Cup, the boat was a 72-footer, this time it was proposed to be a 62-footer and now it is going to be a 49-foot boat," Burling said. "There are only going to be six people on it. It is a pretty small boat and it is definitely a lot different to last time round.

"The boats are a lot more one-design now, so much of what you would have had to design is done for you, like significant portions of the wing and the hulls.

"It also means the sailing side of things will be very important."