facing them, they show no signs of it. They have form to demonstrate they can take the daunting workload in their stride. In 2016 they won the Olympic gold medal in the 49er and then played key roles in winning the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017. Back at the start of that journey Burling was only 23 and was in the middle of an engineering degree. With almost preternatural calm, he seemed bemused when asked if his dance card was a bit crowded. ‘It is just a question of being organised,’ he said before he and Tuke advanced on a 49er blitzkrieg that left Olympic medallist and America’s Cup veteran Rod Davis amazed. ‘And on the way to winning gold at Rio they’d won 21 major regattas on the trot, includ- ing four world championships,’ he noted in admiration. Backed by the experience of the past five years, Burling remains equally unfazed by what lies ahead. ‘The timeframes are similar. We have sailed the 49er for so long now and to quite a high level. They are obviously vastly different boats, but a lot of the 49er-related stuff does cross over quite well to what we have to do at the America’s Cup. Leading into this regatta, it has obviously been an incredibly busy period launching the big boat as well, but it is exactly what we have been planning for.’
Conceding it is sometimes ‘a bit of a juggling act’, he shrugged and asked, ‘What would you rather be doing? We get to push the boundaries in the Cup world and then also jump back into the Olympic class.’
In the end the pair proved adept jugglers when they secured their fifth world title on a blustery and drama-filled final day of the Auckland regatta. They had to overcome a DNF after the tiller extension snapped and then to recover from Burling falling off the boat in the crucial final medal race, charging through from the back of the fleet to shut out their German rivals.
The worlds brought together more than 400 competitors from 20 countries and including 18 Olympic champions to compete in the three classes. Before the first race had started two local wins had already been posted.
For several months leading up to the regatta a large number of northern hemisphere sailors fled their winters to come and train in Auckland. Based out of the newly developed Royal Akarana Yacht
Club at Okahu Bay, they were hugely impressed with what New Zealand has to offer. ‘New Zealand was really a place we needed to get to,’ said 49er class manager Ben Remocker. ‘It is the home of international yacht racing.’
It seems likely that, particularly as the 49er and Nacra classes tend to be the movers and shakers, they will spread the word that the facilities, sailing waters, mix of conditions and strong local sailing groups make for ideal winter training and hopefully more will migrate south in future. The success of the worlds themselves on and off the water will also strengthen the case for similar-scale Olympic and dinghy-class championships in Auckland going forward. The other big winner even before a shot was fired was Mackay Boats. One of two licensed Olympic 49er suppliers in the world, the yard delivered 30 new 49ers for the worlds. The small company north of Auckland has a strong record. With 420s and 470s on its CV as well, Mackay boats have amassed 30 Olympic medals and 140 world championship medals. At both the London and Rio Olympics its 470s and 49ers won seven medals, with 75 per cent of the 49ers in the Rio medal race wearing the firm’s logo. While Mackay manager John Clinton is understandably proud of
the company’s success he is concerned that in the wider context something has been lost in the way small boat sailing has become concentrated in production one-design classes. ‘I know that sounds ironic coming from a manufacturer of these types of boats, but it concerns me that this trend has turned it into a rich person’s game. ‘Nowadays you have to buy professionally manufactured equip- ment and it is all about professional coaching and training, all of which is expensive. It means the kids coming into the sport typically now come from much wealthier families.’
Generally those kids go into the professions, as opposed to earlier times when youngsters with a passion for sailing would frequently become sailmakers or boatbuilders, ensuring a strong integration between the marine industry and the sport. ‘The days of guys turning up to regattas in their rusty cars, towing boats they built themselves and going out racing in woolly jumpers have gone.’ This is not a case of nostalgia for the ‘good old days’. Clinton says something important has been lost in the process and
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SEAHORSE 27
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