Burling and Tuke start their new Olympic campaign in style

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won six of their 11 races. Photo / Yachting NZ

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke made a habit of winning in the last Olympic cycle and started their new campaign in style by taking out the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta today.

They did it against arguably the strongest New Zealand 49er fleet ever, as well as a handful of international crews, and it will be a result that many around the world will take notice of.

They won six of the 11 races off the Royal Akarana Yacht Club to finish 14 points ahead of Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie, with Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey a further eight points behind in third.

"Its been great," Burling said. "Its been a little like riding a bike; a lot of things come back really quickly. At the end of the day you need to put in a lot of time and thats weve been doing over the last four or five months.

"Its been really cool to do a regatta down here and its great to have such a high calibre fleet here in NZ. Its been really cool to battle it out and come away with a win this time."

Chances are they will notch a few more over the next 18 months and they will soon head to Europe to measure themselves against the rest of the 49er fleet, starting with Aprils Princess Sofia regatta in Palma.

The majority of New Zealands top sailors will also compete in Palma, including Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders who took out the Nacra 17.

They started the day two points behind Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson and, although Mackay and Wilkinson had boat damage, Jones and Saunders revelled in the strong sea breeze to win all four races today.

"It was really good to be racing some good quality opposition," Saunders said. "We are making a few mistakes. We havent raced in a while or done a lot of sailing in the last couple of weeks because Gemma hurt her leg. Its been good to get back into it and we are feeling like we are getting on top of things, finally."

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox dominated the 470, winning seven of the eight races, but there were some encouraging signs from new womens combination Susannah Pyatt and Brianna Reynolds-Smith who were second overall. The event was also notable for the inclusion of kiteboarding, which was recently included on the programme for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with Sam Bullock dominating. Dave Ridley edged the Laser and Annabelle Rennie-Younger the women's Laser Radial.

Some of the closest racing was in the youth classes, especially with the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta being used as one of the selection events for the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team to compete at this years youth sailing world championships.

The boys 29er was decided over two regattas and Eli Liefting and Jack Frewin emerged by a solitary point over Brayden Hamilton and Pat Morgan.

"[Winning the trials] means so much because its what we have been training for for the last 18 months," Liefting said.

Its how much time Burling and Tuke have before the Tokyo Olympics and they can now look back on a successful start to their new campaign.

"Its been really nice to put together a good performance this week and sail some better races," Burling said. "It definitely felt like we were sailing a lot better by the end of the weekend.

"We have a list of things to work on before racing in Europe and we will just try to progress. Its about trying to get all the little details in place right now and keep pushing hard."

Results after the final day of the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club today:

49er (16 boats)

1st: Peter Burling / Blair Tuke (NZL) 1 2 1 4 1 (5) 1 3 1 1 2 - 17 points

2nd: Isaac McHardie / William Mckenzie (NZL) 2 4 2 1 5 (6) 2 2 3 4 6 - 31 pts

3rd: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 5 3 5 3 (10) 1 3 4 4 7 4 - 28 pts

49erFX (4 boats)

1st: Ben Paterson / Sean Paterson (NZL) (3) 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 12 pts

2nd: Crystal Sun / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 4 1 3 3 2 3 2 3 (5 RET) 2 5 DNF - 28 pts

3rd: Emma French / Emma Stenhouse (NZL) 2 2 2 2 3 2 (5 UFD) 2 5 RET 5 DNC 5 DNC - 13 pts

29er (8 boats)

1st: Brayden Hamilton / Pat Morgan (NZL) 2 3 1 (4) 2 3 2 - 13 pts

2nd: Eli Liefting / Jack Frewin (NZL) 3 SCP 2 2 3 3 (4) 1 - 14 pts

3rd: James Barnett / Josh Schon (NZL) 4 (8) 3 1 1 2 5 - 16 pts

Nacra 17 (4 boats)

1st: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 1 1 2 2 (5 UFD) 3 1 1 1 1 - 13 pts

2nd: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 (5 DNF) 5 DNC 5 DNC - 21 pts

3rd: Erica Dawson / Henry Haslett (NZL) 3 3 3 3 1 2 3 2 2 (5 UFD) - 22 pts

Nacra 15 (4 boats)

1st: Helena Sanderson / Jack Honey (NZL) 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 (5 RET) 1 5 DNC - 17 pts

2nd: Francesco Kayrouz / Carrington Brady (NZL) 2 3 2 2 4 1 1 2 (5 RET) 3 1 - 21 pts

3rd: Hamish McLaren / Rebecca Morgan (NZL) 3 2 3 3 3 3 (4) 3 1 2 2 - 25 pts

420 (16 boats)

1st: Seb Menzies / Blake McGlashan (NZL) (2) 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 - 9 pts

2nd: Mason Mulcahy / Andre Van Dam (NZL) 4 3 3 1 2 1 (5) 2 - 16 pts

3rd: Donguk Kim / Yeongwoo Kim Busan (KOR) (17 DSQ) 4 2 4 5 4 3 5 - 27 pts

470 (7 boats)

1st: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (5) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 7 pts

2nd: Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 2 3 3 3 3 (5) 2 3 - 19 pts

3rd: Kidong Park / Shin Sang Min (KOR) (8 DNF) 2 2 4 4 3 3 2 - 20 pts

Laser (6 boats)

1st: Dave Ridley (NZL) (3) 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 - 12 pts

2nd: Jing Hwan Lee (KOR) 1 3 2 2 2 (6) 2 1 - 13 pts

3rd: Sangkyu Kim (KOR) (7 OCS) 1 3 4 1 1 5 4 - 19 pts

Laser Radial (22 boats)

1st: Caleb Armit (NZL) 4 (6) 1 3 2 3 1 4 - 18 pts

2nd: Luke Cashmore (NZL) 2 1 2 1 (19) 7 5 1 - 19 pts

3rd: Albert Stanley (NZL) 1 3 3 11 10 (23 UFD) 2 2 - 32 pts

Also

7th: Annabelle RennieYounger (NZL) 12 5 5 13 (18) 1 9 7 - 52 pts

8th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 15 11 6 6 3 (18) 11 3 - 55 pts

9th: Samantha Stock (NZL) 13 14 15 4 (21) 2 4 12 - 64 pts

Kites (4 kites)

1st: Sam Bullock (NZL) (1) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 15 pts

2nd: Ben Turner (NZL) 2 2 3 2 2 2 (5 DNS) 5 DNC 5 DNC 5 DNC 3 2 3 4 3 2 - 45 pts

3rd: Justina Kitchen (NZL) 4 4 4 3 4 3 2 2 (5 DNS) 5 DNF 2 3 4 3 4 3 - 50 pts

Full results here

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand