After a decade at the helm and three America’s Cup wins in a row, Peter Burling will not be part of Emirates Team New Zealand’s next defence. He speaks with Christopher Reive about his exit, success and what lies ahead.
Looking back on all the successes across a decade in the America’s Cup, it’s a loss that stands out to Peter Burling.
Sailing in his first Cup match in Bermuda in 2017, the young helmsman and Emirates Team New Zealand had taken a 4-0 lead over Oracle Team USA in their challenge for the Auld Mug.
But a loss in the next race brought with it a renewed sense of nerves and tension within the Kiwi team.
It was his first loss in an America’s Cup match, and the last one the team would suffer in the campaign as Team New Zealand dethroned the Americans in the first-to-seven series.
“Bouncing straight back out of that into another win was something pretty cool, looking back,” he recalls.
“I’m not sure whether it was superstition or not, but it was actually the first time I’d lifted the thing when I picked it up on stage.
“In our world, some people have a superstition that you don’t want to pick it up until you’ve won it, and some people have a ‘just you get a photo with it at any opportunity’ kind of vibe.
“It was a little heavier than I thought. It was pretty cool. It’s just such an iconic sporting trophy.”
It was the first of three straight campaigns that ended with Burling hoisting the Auld Mug aloft.
But after a decorated decade at the helm, the 34-year-old’s tenure with Team New Zealand came to an end last month as the team opted to move on after drawn-out negotiations.
“It’s been an amazing journey over the last 10 years. Some incredible memories with some incredible people, and a lot of success within that time,” Burling says.
From the sailor’s perspective, the negotiation was similar to what it had been over the past three cycles, with his desire to run concurrent campaigns in different competitions. He had been able to balance commitments with the Olympics and his roles as driver and co-chief executive of the Black Foils in SailGP in recent editions of the Cup, and believes being able to have that additional sailing time in other competitions was ultimately to the benefit of the team as well.
However, that proved to be the deciding factor in negotiations.
“Team New Zealand saw it a little bit differently, where they kind of wanted a bit more control than they have in the past, and especially with my specific role within that,” Burling explains.
“It was just, I suppose, a subtle difference in terms of the amount of uncertainty between how the two were going to operate compared to what they’ve given me in the past.
“I think when you look at the Black Foils and SailGP and how exciting that proposition is, I really wanted to continue my position within that team. For me to be able to compete for New Zealand on the home stage, as well as the international stage, is really motivating and exciting.
“To see the first Auckland event have 25,000 people getting through the race stadium, you know, hundreds of thousands of people watching that event live, and for people to actually get super excited about a consistent sailing property right at the highest level in New Zealand annually is something that really motivated me there.
“I really wanted to keep my position within the SailGP team, and the way Team New Zealand saw it, they didn’t see that probably quite the same as I did.”
Negotiations between the two had been ongoing since they won the 37th edition in Barcelona late last year, which Burling had said was not unusual. It wasn’t until February 2022 – almost a year after Team New Zealand defended the Cup in Auckland – that Burling and longtime teammate Blair Tuke confirmed they would return for the 2024 defence.
However, in announcing Burling would not be with the team for the next cycle, Team New Zealand chief executive Grant Dalton said time was a luxury they did not have and the team had to move on in preparation for the next edition, to be held in Naples, Italy, in 2027, with the tighter cycle requiring “a dedicated and new approach for continued success.”
While Auckland was among the contenders to host the next edition, Burling says it’s hard to know how a home regatta might have affected negotiations, if at all, and admits with the current economic model of how the Cup‘s structured, he didn’t hold out much hope of it being in New Zealand this time.
He did, however, think there would be a few more rounds of discussion between himself and Team New Zealand, but knew the offer that stood wasn’t something that worked for him.
“I get along really well with Dalts. Obviously, it’s been a really successful relationship for the last 10 years, so we have pretty good, open, frank conversations,” Burling says.
“For me, when you looked at previous campaigns, there‘s a lot of back and forth as to actually how to set the thing up for success in the first instance.
“They decided they weren’t going to shift their position, so that was pretty much where things ended. But it’s a part of life, it’s part of sport, and you’ve got to be happy with the decisions you make.”
There were no discussions about the possibility of him staying on in a different role.
“Our conversations were very much around [that] they wanted me to be in that key role, the one I’ve done for the last three cycles. It was probably a little bit of surprise that they didn’t want to explore other options, but that’s for them to decide, and, for me personally, I’m not really sure how those conversations would have unfolded, but we didn’t go down that route.”
It closes the book – for now – on Burling’s time as an America’s Cup sailor.
He exits with a slew of accolades, including becoming the youngest helmsman to win the Auld Mug when, aged 26, he steered the team to victory in Bermuda, won three America’s Cups in a row and set a new record for most America’s Cup match race wins by a helmsman with 22.
He says the special thing, since it was confirmed he would not be with the team for the next cycle, has been that it has given him the chance to reflect on what he and the team had achieved.
Burling succeeded Dean Barker as helmsman after the unsuccessful 2013 Cup challenge against Oracle Team USA in San Francisco, after racing for the Kiwi syndicate in, and winning, the Youth America’s Cup in the same year.
Burling and fellow Youth America’s Cup sailor Tuke had watched the rollercoaster finish – with Team New Zealand conceding an 8-1 lead to lose 9-8 – from Marseille in France as they competed at, and won, the men’s 49er world championships.
Burling says that relatively quickly after that America’s Cup he got a call asking if he wanted to be involved in the following cycle. Both he and Tuke were confirmed as members of Team New Zealand’s next challenge in January 2014.
“I got a baptism of fire,” he recalls of his debut campaign.
The 2017 cycle brought plenty of changes, including a new class of boat in which the number of crew on board dropped from 11 to six, and rules prohibiting challengers from building more than one new boat, while Team New Zealand didn’t confirm they would be financed enough to commit to a challenge until six months after Burling had signed on.
When the team got to Bermuda, they were fighting to keep their boat in decent shape and had to work their way back from a capsize during the semifinal of the Challenger Series.
They were able to push through, however, this time getting the better of the American defenders.
“It’s definitely a campaign, when you look back ... [in which] a lot of 50/50s, a lot of those close calls we always have in sport, seemed to just continue to roll our way,” he says.
“After we flipped, having a little more time to repair the wing, having a slightly easier opponent at that stage so you kind of didn’t need to be back at 100% straight away, the continued fight to keep our foils in one piece, there was a lot of management of the boat to make sure we still had a boat to sail by the end of it, and then just the progression we were on at that stage ... it was really cool looking back at it.”
It was the first in an America’s Cup hat-trick for Burling and Team New Zealand, also winning regattas in Auckland in 2021 and again in Barcelona last year, which were contested on the radical 75-foot (23m) foiling monohull AC75s the team introduced after winning in 2013.
And just as things progressed on the water, so too did his affairs on land.
Burling is now a married man, and he and wife Lucinda are parents to 1-year-old Paloma. Together with Tuke as co-chief executive, he helped launch the New Zealand SailGP Team – later renamed the Black Foils – while the pair also founded Live Ocean, through which they support marine conservation projects and engage partners to help drive action and awareness to protect the seas.
“My motivation’s incredibly high. I still absolutely love the sport. Obviously, life‘s a little bit busier than it was when you first started out, but I’ve always really enjoyed being busy and doing a lot of things at once. I feel like that’s a lot of the reason why I’ve had so much success within my career; really being able to take the learnings from different facets of the sport or facets of life and bring them back in and apply them in a really positive way,” he says.
“It’s been incredible, the last part, to grow a family. Lucy and our daughter have been absolutely amazing along this journey. It’s been so cool to have that part of my life now, which obviously means that your time‘s even more important to you to be able to really enjoy that part of your life, which is really cool and something that we weigh into considerations.”
While he is no longer a part of Team New Zealand, opportunity will still likely knock for Burling in the America’s Cup arena in some capacity.
He says his phone started ringing as soon as the news broke, with potential challengers testing the waters.
Whether or not Burling will be able to sail for another team remains to be seen, with the confirmed protocol – the blueprint for the next edition - set to be released before the end of next month.
“I definitely went into this with that goal of trying to be part of Team New Zealand and a structure that really worked for me into the next cycle, but the sailing community is incredibly small, so everyone knows everyone incredibly well and everyone‘s kind of feeling it out.
“Never say never. It’ll definitely be interesting to see when the protocol comes out and the rules and the venue, just how everything can tie together, but, yeah, [I’m] definitely open to opportunities.”
Dalton has previously noted that a draft version of the protocol allowed for two non-nationals to be recruited, and indications of that rule became stronger when Team New Zealand this week confirmed British sailor Chris Draper among their core sailors.
However, it is understood that non-nationals recruited cannot fill on-water racing roles unless they were not involved in the last edition. In that situation, Burling will still be able to join another team in a non-racing role, but everything about his potential future in the Cup remains hypothetical until the protocol has been locked in.
For the immediate future, Burling is focusing on drawing attention to the proposed Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill - which plans to introduce 19 new marine protection areas in the gulf to help address environmental decline because of human activities, but has stalled after two readings – through Foil4TheGulf, a mass foiling event on May 24 at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club co-hosted by the Black Foils and Live Ocean.
“We would love to see that get through Parliament. It’s something that the Hauraki Gulf’s really one of those amazing parts of New Zealand’s landscape, traditionally,” he says.
“It’s one of the largest marine parks in the world, but it really is at a tipping point where we need to start getting runs on the board, start getting wins. By no means is this bill the complete solution, but it’s a great step forward and one we need to get behind and really support and then showcase some really positive change.”
He will head abroad in June for the next SailGP event, with the global foiling league returning in New York on June 8-9 after cancelling their event in Rio de Janeiro scheduled for this month to address and issue with some of the wingsails in the fleet. Then he’s off to Nice, France, for the United Nations Ocean Conference.
And while he feels he and Team New Zealand could have come to a solution on another campaign, Burling accepts it wasn’t to be and is looking forward to what life has in store for him next.
“I’m definitely still on really good terms with everyone there. I’ve obviously really enjoyed my time and the opportunities and the way I’ve grown as part of Team New Zealand.
“But I’m looking forward to continuing my journey; continuing to grow the Black Foils, continuing to put ocean health on the agenda on the New Zealand stage with Live Ocean and really drive some positive change there and also continue to try and grow myself as a person and spend more time with family.
“I’m just looking forward to the next period, what opportunities come up and where life ends up taking me.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
Luna Rossa have been active in their recruitment drive for the next America's Cup.