Sailing: Peter Burling and New Zealand SailGP team face awkward situation for final events

Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke, Peter Burling and Erica Dawson in action for the New Zealand SailGP team. Photo / SailGP

Peter Burling has confirmed the New Zealand SailGP team are committed to competing at the regatta in Sydney in December, despite restrictions meaning they would face strict quarantines on both ends.

The SailGP fleet is in Spain this week for the sixth of eight stops in this year's circuit, after which the Kiwis will return home, with the penultimate stop in Sydney not until mid-December.

The time gaps between the final three events of the campaign provide an awkward situation for the New Zealanders, with two months between Spain and Sydney, then a further four months before the final regatta in the United States.

It means the New Zealanders will be in the market for MIQ spots several times in the next six months, highlighting the need for freedom of movement for people who need to travel offshore for work.

"It's a pretty tough world we live in at the moment as sportspeople having to compete overseas and still trying to have a life back in New Zealand," Burling told Newstalk ZB.

"Hopefully there's a way through it at some stage, but right now we're definitely doing some hard yards.

"We're fully committed to going [to Sydney], but as it stands, we'd have to quarantine going into Australia and then again when we come back out because currently there's no travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia. We've got our fingers crossed at least that one will change if New Zealand can get back to a reasonable situation.

"I don't have an MIQ spot booked yet, but hopefully at some stage I'll be able to get one. I'm sure the MIQ spot on December 20-22, or around there, won't be the most popular one. I might end up staying overseas for a little bit longer through that period just to not have to spend my birthday and Christmas in MIQ."

With three events left on the SailGP calendar, the New Zealand crew sit sixth in the standings, following the disappointment of narrowly missing out on the podium race at last month's event in France.

In a tightly contested field, the Kiwis sit seven points off the competition-leading Japanese crew.

However, Burling and the team have shown they're getting more comfortable with sailing the F50 catamaran, showing at the most recent event they were able to make ground through the fleet after the start – which had been a criticism of the team early in the season.

"We've definitely got our strengths and our weaknesses still. The experience, in our sport, is over quite a big wind range and these boats have different configurations we sail in different wind strengths, so it's kind of trying to get used to all of that which is definitely been challenging with the limited amount of time we've had. But we definitely feel like we're competing at the right end of the fleet now."

While the past couple of events have had variable conditions – with steady wind one day and light winds the other – Burling said the forecast could serve up similar conditions this weekend in Cadiz, however any onshore wind could make things interesting.

"If it blows onshore, one of the things with this venue is that it's quite wavy, so that will make the F50s very hard to organise."