Kiwi SailGP champion Peter Burling celebrates wife’s birthday with flashback wedding photo gallery

America’s Cup-winning skipper Peter Burling has shared wedding photos on his Instagram in celebration of his wife Lucinda Nelson’s birthday. Photo / Supplied

Olympic champion and America’s Cup-winning skipper Peter Burling has celebrated his wife Lucinda Nelson’s birthday by offering fans and followers a peek at their wedding photos.

Burling proposed to Nelson last year on a trip to New York, following the Chicago US SailGP event after four years together.

Nelson, a lawyer by training, who previously worked in banking and property finance, joined forces with her mother, Deborah Nelson, in her successful interior design business based in Auckland.

The pair tied the knot in March this year surrounded by friends and family, including Burling’s sailing mates Blair Tuke, Andy Maloney and Josh Junior, who were his groomsmen.

“Happy Birthday @lucindanelson <3,” Burling wrote on Instagram to his audience of over 51,000 followers. The message was accompanied by a series of photos from the pair’s glamourous wedding by the beach in Matarangi on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Nelson, 34, has played a big part in Burling’s success over the past four years sources say, being by his side during the professional sailor’s launch of the SailGP team and during the America’s Cup.

Sources say Nelson has played a big part in Burling’s success over the past four years. Photo / Instagram

Burling, Tuke and the New Zealand SailGP Team will compete in Saint-Tropez, France from 11.30pm on Saturday, the scene of last year’s clash which saw Australian driver Tom Slingsby and his crew lose control and nose-dive at more than 80km/h.

After starting the season on a high in Chicago, the Kiwis were brought back to Earth in Los Angeles in July in an event where they struggled to find their rhythm.

Finishing in the top five in just two of the five fleet races – with a best finish of fourth. Finishing the event in seventh, it was the team’s worst finish in two years and saw them fall from atop the overall standings to fifth.

Sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Photo / Nick Reed.

There will be a change to the crew onboard this weekend, with Jo Aleh returning in the strategist role in place of Liv Mackay.

Burling and Tuke launched their charity called Ocean Live in 2019 to support and invest in promising marine science, innovation, technology and marine conservation projects.