Sailing: Another gold for Kiwi pair

Blair Tuke (left) and Peter Burling celebrate a successful defence of their European 49er class title in Helsinki on Sunday.

Like a fine wine, Kerikeri's Blair Tuke just keeps getting better - as he and Peter Burling continue to dominate yachting's 49er class.

The world champions have easily defended their European Championships title in Helsinki, Finland, with two firsts and a third in the medal races.

"It is an awesome way to finish off what has been a really solid week for us here in Helsinki," said Tuke after Sunday night's final races.

"We came out with intent this afternoon, wanting to wrap it up as quickly as possible - doing that after race two.

"After a few quick congrats we got back into it and won the last race to top it off."

Germany's Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel came away with the silver medal, Great Britain's Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign the bronze.

On the penultimate day of racing Tuke and Burling started to put themselves into a solid position despite an average result in the opening race of the day, a 16th.

The pair then came back firing and scored two bullets in the following races as the breeze built on the gold fleet course.

At the time, Tuke said: "Another good day for us. We started out the day with a 16th, reminding us just how difficult Gold fleet racing can be when you don't execute 100 per cent.

"We then bounced back nicely winning the next two and with the discard coming into play, we carry straight firsts through the gold fleet racing."

Competing against Tuke in the 49er class was Onerahi's Marcus Hansen and his partner Josh Porebski.

Having been silver medallists at last year's 49er World Championship, Hansen and Porebski have been building steadily for the last 18 months.

In Helsinki the duo finished 30th - second in the silver fleet - out of 83 boats after sitting in 13th place at the end of the opening day, racing home with a fourth, 12th, and eighth place finishes.

Fellow Northlander Alexandra Maloney and her sailer partner Molly Meech faced more of a challenge to hold their overnight lead for the 49erFX title with the classy Brazilians and Danes in striking distance.

The Kiwis finished with a 3, 9, 6 in their three quick-fire races returning to take the bronze medal. Sharing the same 60 points total with the Brazilians, Maloney and Meech only just missed the silver medal on count-back.

New Zealand's final results:

49er: (83 boats)

Gold medal Peter Burling and Blair Tuke

30th (2nd Silver fleet) Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski

53rd (25th Silver fleet) Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson

55th (27th Silver fleet) Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock

49erFX: (51 boats)

Bronze medal Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech

28th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland

NZL Sailing Team Coaches: Jez Fanstone and Hamish Willcox