New Zealand SailGP team has wing sail collapse after race in France.
Things have gotten weird early in the season for the New Zealand SailGP Team, but Peter Burling knows there is still plenty of water to go under the hull in the coming months.
After four events in the new 12-stop campaign, the Kiwi crew sit fifth in the standings headinginto this weekend’s event in Cadiz, Spain, 12 points behind season leaders Australia and six points back from the podium places. A glance at the final results from those four stops tells one story, but the reality is quite a different tale.
“We’re happy with how we’ve been sailing and how we started off the season, but we’ve had bad luck in the last couple of events; coming in really late and a bit underprepared to LA in hindsight and not really having a chance in the past two events to get a result on the board like we should have,” Burling told the Herald.
“We’re just looking forward to trying to put our best foot forward for a string of events now.”
The Kiwis came out of the blocks blazing to open their season with an event win in Chicago, before heading into the Los Angeles event admittedly underprepared and sailing a disappointing regatta to finish in seventh place - their worst result in two years.
But things got unusual in Saint-Tropez, France, in early September, with their 29m wing sail imploding after the first day of racing and the team were forced to retire from the event. It was a situation unlike any other seen in three complete seasons of the global foiling league, and despite the vessels being league-supplied and managed, the Kiwis were not given any redress despite a strong start to the regatta. That saw them only score points from three of five fleet races and finish the event in eighth.
The New Zealand SailGP Team could not complete the Saint-Tropez event after their 29m wing sail collapsed. Photo: Ricardo Pinto/SailGP
The league were unable to provide the materials needed to get them back on the water in Taranto, Italy, two weeks later, but did compensate the team this time with a fifth-place finish in the regatta despite them not sailing.
“We thought the decision on the redress they gave us was pretty harsh,” Burling said. “Considering the circumstances and the average we’d had on the season to that point was a lot better than that. It’s one where obviously we have differing views to the league, but in saying that, we’re pretty happy to get the fifth and now just focus ahead. We’re just excited to be back on the scoreboard and try to maximise our chances of winning this weekend.
“As a team, we rely on the league for essential service – we lease the yacht off them essentially and they look after the maintenance and take care of the asset. With them not being able to provide us with an asset to race, it was fair for them to give us some compensation for that.”
With the two most recent events being taken out of their hands, the Kiwi crew return to the water knowing they have ground to make up both on the scoreboard and potentially on the water. With the fleet now not using 29m wings until the engineers figure out what led to the failure in Saint-Tropez, light winds will see the teams race in a different configuration – sailing four-up with a 24m wing instead.
“It’s been a slightly different set of notes to read going into this weekend,” Burling said.
“We’re slightly on the back foot having missed a few days sailing in the kind of configuration that’s likely to be run in Cadiz, but we’re really excited by that challenge of getting up to speed quickly and having a good weekend.”
“For sure, the top of the leaderboard is still something that’s achievable. The competition’s getting so tight now that essentially one bad result, one good result can see an eight or nine-point swing.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
