Sailing: Burling and Tuke take out world title

Northland's Blair Tuke, along with Peter Burling, has won a third consecutive 49er world championship. Photo / Pedro Martinez

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the 2015 49er World Championship in Argentina, making it three consecutive world titles in the Olympic skiff class, to extend their unprecedented unbeaten run to 22 victories in a row.

Burling (24) and Tuke (26) had victory in the bag with a race to spare after opening an unassailable 29 point gap, after three morning races, over the Alonso brothers from Spain on the final day.

The Kiwis, described by race commentators as being in a class of their own, were 4th in the medal race to seal the deal and end the 16-race regatta 34 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

"We're absolutely stoked to take another title," Burling said.

"This one has been a really tough week and I think both Blair and myself are pretty tired now, which shows how tough it's been, but we are really stoked to take another title and I'm sure it will set in over the next couple of hours."

The gold fleet sailed three finals races yesterday morning, in which Burling and Tuke placed 13th, 8th and 8th.

"We didn't sail super well, which we were a bit annoyed about, but at the same time the guys that were close to us sailed worse so we ended up with a pretty huge lead again which is really nice," Tuke said post-race.

For Burling and Tuke, taking the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games has motivated the pair toward finishing one place better at Rio 2016.

Since being beaten by Australia's Jason Outteridge and Iain Jensen in London, who are also campaigning towards Rio 2016, the New Zealand crew has won every 49er event they've sailed.

Earlier this month the pair took out the highest award a sailor can receive - the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year for 2015.

"Being named ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year last week was pretty special and we had our heads down concentrating on this trying to get the best prepared we could, so we'll sure enjoy it with our coach Hamish [Willcox] and the rest of the Kiwis here. Then we'll look forward to getting back to New Zealand and sharing it with family and friends," Tuke said.

Scheduling of events in the 12 months leading into the 2016 Olympic Games means that Burling and Tuke will defend their latest world title in less than three months, with the 2016 49er and 49erFX World Championships taking place in mid-February in Florida, US.

Until then, Burling and Tuke will return home for the New Zealand summer and will attend the 2015 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards in Auckland next Friday.