SailGP: Peter Burling’s New Zealand Team starts strong as new season begins in Chicago

The New Zealand SailGP team made a strong start to the first event of the season in Chicago. Photo: Jon Buckle/SailGP

Regular service has resumed in SailGP.

On the waters of Lake Michigan at Chicago’s Navy Pier - the only freshwater racecourse they’ll face this season – the New Zealand team finished the day second on the leaderboard with two second-placed finishes and a fourth.

They trail three-time defending SailGP champions Australia who finished the day at the top despite a horror start in race two, winning the day’s other two races without much trouble.

“They were a little more up and down and we were a little more consistent today, but I think all in all we’re really happy,” New Zealand driver Peter Burling told the Herald of the day’s racing.

“We felt like we put some pretty good gains on the table. We obviously weren’t quite polished with them today, but it feels like we’ve got some really good potential and some exciting roads to develop.”

Outside of the German team adding a 10th boat to the fleet, the first day of the fourth season saw little change as a familiar pattern began to form.

But while the scoreboard situation was one often seen last season, there was plenty for the Kiwi crew to take away from the day’s three races. In the cramped starting box, not helped by the breakwater in the middle of it, they took a tactical approach to getting off the mark. While they were slow across the line in two of the three races, they prioritised positioning and got to the first marker in good shape to set up their races every time.

In the two races where they trailed several boats across the starting line, that position paid dividends as they read the conditions well and made big gains on the leading boats. That was shown in the statistics at the end of the day, with the Kiwis getting around the course in an efficient manner – ending the day having sailed the least distance on average of any team in the fleet.

It didn’t take them long before they joined the leading crews, challenging for the podium positions.

Race one saw Australia sail clear at the front of the pack, ahead of Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

The second was arguably the New Zealand team’s best showing of the day, but a penalty cost them what likely would have been a race win. After a strong start, the Kiwis consolidated that around the first marker to take the early lead. However, they were penalised for not giving France room around the next maker and were forced to fall behind the French team.

“I thought we were clear ahead,” Burling said. “France did a bit of a Hail Mary down the inside and got a penalty on us at that first mark, so we’ll have to go back and have a look.”

It was a big loss as the Kiwis dropped from first to fourth. As they were able to do all day, the Kiwis again made their way past boats and finished the race in second place behind Canada.

The final race of the day saw Australia and New Zealand – who finished first and second overall last season – battle it out at the front of the fleet; Australia taking the spoils.

Finishing the day second overall with 25 points on the event leaderboard, the Kiwis are well poised to contest their first event final of the season. Sunday morning will see them complete two more fleet races, before the top three teams line up for the podium race.

“You obviously can’t win these events on the first day, but you can lose them,” Burling said.

“For us to get three solid results on the board; it’d be nice to be going into it tomorrow first on the leaderboard, because the forecast is looking pretty terrible. We’re definitely a little nervous that there’s not going to be any wind, but apart from that, we’re super happy to be getting into it.”