Matt Brown shadowed one of the biggest names in sailing for a day as the New Zealand team prepared for round four of SailGP.
It's 7.30am on Thursday, practice race day ahead of SailGP Denmark, and the New Zealand team helmsman and co-CEO Peter Burling sits down for breakfast at the hotel with the team's media manager Natalie Fortier.
Over some oats and bircher muesli, the pair discuss the upcoming media conference featuring the nine drivers of the boats which is being held offsite at 9am.
Burling has a lot on his plate. He is one of New Zealand's most decorated sailors, with two America's Cup triumphs at the helm of Team New Zealand. He has won an Olympic gold medal in the 49er with Blair Tuke in Rio 2016 as well as winning silver in London in 2012 and in Tokyo last year.
The affable Burling is still just 31 and while he has accomplished so much on the water, he is just as passionate about ocean conservation which he promotes through Live Ocean, the charity he and Tuke founded.
Between SailGP events, which are coming thick and fast in Europe, Burling is starting to get busy with Team NZ, who are getting close to launching their smaller test boat ahead of AC37 in Barcelona in 2024.
Today though his focus is fully on SailGP. It's still early days in the 11-event global foiling series raced on identical F50 catamarans, but confidence within the team is high following their success three weeks ago in Plymouth.
The New Zealanders finally broke through to win a round, having never previously made a podium race for the top three teams since their debut at the start of season two last year.
Here's how Burling's day unfolded as he prepared in hope of another victory.
9am: I catch up with Burling at the pre-regatta media conference where he sits down alongside one of his great adversaries, Sir Ben Ainslie who is at the helm of the Great Britain team, with Danish skipper Nikolai Sehested, Australia's Tom Slingsby and new helm of the Swiss team Nathan Outteridge also in attendance.
Burling gets off fairly lightly, answering a question about the team's win in Plymouth before observing while Slingsby and Ainslie argue the rights and wrongs of an incident in the final fleet race in Plymouth which cost the Brits a place in the podium race.
The rival skippers are wary of the resurgent New Zealanders.
"New Zealand we knew they were lurking and were improving event to event," said Slingsby.
"Their level jumped up a long way and we knew that the Kiwis were coming to the top of the fleet soon. They are going to be a contender this season for sure."
9.30am: The conference winds up and Burling is taken back to the hotel and catches up informally with a few members of the team for a chat over coffee.
11.15am: We walk from the hotel over to the tech site where the boats are housed. Burling tells me race days are typically his least busy, where everything is run to a strict schedule. He's looking forward to getting out on the water, with the weather for practice races expected to be much better than the previous day where the team spent most of their three hours on the water off the foils.
11.25am: The team gather on couches at the base for a morning karakia. As a guest of the team, I am handed an Amokura feather, the sea bird that the team's boat is named after, and a gift from master navigator Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr.
11.30am: Tuke says a few words about the day's plan and Fortier discusses the media coverage and announcement of the tickets going on sale for the Christchurch Sail GP event in March. There is a buzz among the crew with their thoughts briefly turning to the excitement of their home event getting closer.
11.40am: Sailing coach Ray Davies, a new addition to the team this season from Team New Zealand, discusses the weather forecast which while should be good for the practice races, looks lighter and shifty for the racing days. The wider shore team disperses a few minutes later and the sailing team, consisting of Burling, Tuke, Josh Junior, Marcus Hansen, Andy Maloney, Louis Sinclair and Liv Mackay, move into one of the team's two containers for a meeting with Davies.
11.50am: Davies who everyone calls 'Razor' and with a reputation akin to a certain rugby coach with the same nickname, outlines some of the potential manoeuvres they will try with input from all the crew. They are a diverse bunch with different personalities but they all have great depth of sailing knowledge. Burling takes the lead to outline a specific approach for the starts which are crucial for these short fleet races.
12.30pm: it's time for the rollout of Amokura from the team's marquee. The Kiwis are just behind the French boat and its hard hats on and all hands on deck as the giant wing sail is lowered by crane into position. There are two cranes for the boats and each team is allocated loading slots and unloading slots. The process runs smoothly and the sailing crew head back to base to get into their wetsuits, and eat something ahead of what will be a long session on the water.
2.10pm:The team's chase boat is attached to Amokura and the crew head out onto the harbour. The crew run through a series of safety tests and check all the systems. It's a high-tech computerised boat where all the data on board is available to all the teams.
2.20pm: There is an extensive practice race build-up, on-water training and drills; the crew warm up and get comfortable with conditions on the Øresund Srait.
3:30pm: Things don't go according to plan initially for the New Zealanders, with a mechanical issue forcing them to sit out the first practice race. The tech team together with New Zealand shore crew works to address the issue at pace.
4:09pm: Burling had done a terrific job with his starts in Plymouth and again shows his growing prowess in the second practice race, timing the charge to the line to perfection, rounding the first mark 100 metres ahead of the Australians and sailing a flawless race to win from start to finish.
4:34pm: Burling just gets it wrong by a fraction of a second in the third practice race, crossing the line early and copping a penalty which sees them round the first mark in last place. They then make a mistake at the gate, taking on water in the tack and slipping back to eventually finish fifth.
5pm: After missing the end of the team's build-up and the first practice race, the Kiwis stay on the water to get a bit more volume and provide additional practice for Mackay in the second grinder position, which is the role she performs when the team adopts their four-up, light wind configuration.
5.30pm: Transition to provide Mackay (Burling's helm assist) time behind the wheel to hone her skills. It's 6pm when the crew calls it a day and the team heads into base.
6.15pm: A visit from the Kiwis 'adopted club' KØS Sejlsport sees the crew greet a group of youth sailors and their parents for a base tour and Q&A on what it takes to make it in the professional league.
6.30pm: The sailing team debrief, it's a relatively short review of the day, recording progress made and areas to work on between now and tomorrow. There's a short preview of tomorrow's conditions to help the team prepare for the challenges of light-air sailing.
7.30pm: The sailing team and shore crew help to crane the boat out of the water, and take the wing down. They wash the boat, return Amokura to base, remove appendages/foils, and perform final checks before racing.
8.30pm: The team visits a nearby restaurant for a team dinner before returning to the hotel and Burling is in bed by 10pm ahead of race day.
• Day one was abandoned due to a lack of wind, with three races scheduled to be raced overnight to determine the winner of SailGP Denmark.
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