Sailing: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke unveil New Zealand SailGP team

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Photo / Photosport

Olympic gold medallists and defending America's Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have announced their team to compete in SailGP.

The New Zealand SailGP Team co-CEO's squad features Olympic, round-the-world and America's Cup sailors from up and down the country such as Andy Maloney, Josh Junior, Marcus Hansen and Louis Sinclair.

The team share extensive experience in foiling high tech boats as well as world-class high-performance sailing campaigns across 49er, Nacra, and Finn Olympic classes and round the world editions.

Like Burling and Tuke, many of the New Zealand SailGP Team members will combine Olympic campaigns with the SailGP league.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's SailGP team. Photo / Supplied

"For now the majority of the team is head down focused on the defence of the America's Cup with Emirates Team New Zealand in March but it's a great milestone to announce such a strong line up of sailors to join us in our first SailGP season," Burling said.

The team also includes Liv Mackay and Erica Dawson - successful candidates from the New Zealand SailGP Team female development programme.

The programme, launched last year, aims to fast-track the inclusion of female athletes in the league. The initial phase of the programme will see Mackay and Dawson immerse in the team for the opening event of the season in Bermuda in April.

Following the pre-season training and development in Bermuda at least one of the athletes will be selected to join the team for the rest of the season.

"While this is a small step in working towards gender equality in sailing, we are committed to creating more opportunities for women in professional sailing," said Tuke.

The New Zealand SailGP Team will support its Race for the Future charity partner Live Ocean, the marine conservation organisation founded by Burling and Tuke.

SailGP Season 2 was postponed due to COVID-19 and is rescheduled to start in Bermuda in April.

Full schedule:

Bermuda (April 24-25), Taranto (ITA, June 5-6), Plymouth (GBR, July 17-18), Aarhus (DEN, August 20-21), Saint-Tropez (FRA, September 11-12) and Cadiz (ESP, October 9-10).

SailGP will also make its first visit to Christchurch for New Zealand's maiden grand prix on January 29-30, 2022. The season will culminate with the Grand Final in San Francisco on March 26-27, 2022, when the champion will be determined in a single $1 million winner-takes-all final.