Silver Medalist Sailors Peter Burling (left) and Blair Tuke parade on Devonport Road for the Bay's Homecoming Olympians.
Silver Medalist Sailors Peter Burling (left) and Blair Tuke parade on Devonport Road for the Bay's Homecoming Olympians.
It's been an intense week in the sailing world with Tauranga's Peter Burling tipped to take over from Dean Barker as Team New Zealand skipper. Ruth Keber talks to Burling's parents, former principal and coach to find out more about the champion sail.
PETER Burling started his sailing career flying across the Welcome Bay estuary in a wooden optimist at the age of 6.
As speculation on whether Team New Zealand axes long-serving skipper Dean Barker and appoints 24-year-old Burling to the helm of New Zealand's sailing team continues, his father Richard Burling remembers the first time he sailed with him at home in Tauranga.
"We bought the $200 boat when his brother was 8, so we'd take it down to the estuary and would sail over high tide - that is where he learnt to sail,'' Richard Burling told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"They mucked around in it for a couple of years, we'd take it on holiday and they would swim in it, underneath it and fill it up with sand."
"When he did his first optimist worlds he was 11, the rest of them were 14 and 15-year-olds, when we talk about Peter being young, which he still is at 24, it's just how it's always been for him."
Asked whether his son has the ability to lead Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup, Richard Burling replies: "Every kid who starts sailing from the age of 6 thinks they can drive anything."
Burling's mother, Heather Burling, is proud of her son's achievements.
"My duck turning into a swan was when he was 11. He went off to optimist nationals - we were expecting him to get in the top 20 and he got second. He really nearly won it and it was under 16 and he was only 11. All the rest of the top-10 children were 14 or 15 and from Auckland, and here was this squirty, little ... Tauranga kid,'' she recalls. "I have absolute confidence in Peter's ability."
Garry Smith, past commodore of Tauranga Yacht Club, says there is no doubt Burling has the ability.
"He's certainly got the opportunity but whether he puts the Olympics ahead of the America's Cup ... because I struggle with how he would do both. That elusive gold medal is still something that is pretty important to his sailing, as well as to him.
"He's a superb sailer and he's certainly got the x-factor. They certainly didn't sign him up with the attitude to leave him on the bench."
Former Tauranga Boys' College principal Graham Young recalls Burling being a "pretty focused young man" at school.
"He negotiated his young timetable in a way so he could have absence from school for his sailing and yet he was doing university papers from Year 12."
Burling's attitude, says Young, has kept him on top.
"I want to be the best but I am going to keep things in balance. He is a gifted athlete, but he is also gifted intellectually as well."
But Burling's Olympic coach is wary of throwing the 24-year-old in the deep end with his potential Team New Zealand promotion.
49er Olympic coach Hamish Willcox told Radio Sport Burling's more than capable for the role, but will initially need some support.
"There's still a lot of experience required for him to make a good fist of it and that's where those older, more senior members of the team need to make sure if he's going to take that position, that he's well equipped.
"I mean he's still got a lot of development too, so what needs to happen is America's Cup sailors, experienced ones, they really need to take a lead with Pete and give him that experience under their guidance."
Willcox believes Burling has all the attributes needed to skipper the syndicate, but will need a few other senior members to ensure there's support around him.
