Peter Burling reflects on SailGP Auckland leg.
Video / NZ Herald
In Auckland’s debut on the SailGP calendar, the home-town Black Foils had to watch the final from the sidelines.
On one of the more chaotic days of racing the SailGP fleet has seen, the Black Foils were unable to claw their way into the podium race, finishing the event in fourth place.
The day followed a similar pattern for the home-town favourites who, as they did on day one, struggled in the starting box and were left chasing the leaders.
While they were able to save some crucial points by moving through the fleet, they fell just two points short of the three-boat final.
Speaking after the day’s racing, Black Foils driver Peter Burling said their day was heavily impacted by issues with their boat.
“For us, it was a pretty frustrating day,” Burling said.
“It felt like yesterday we were building really nicely winning the last race and then today we just went out and half our build-up was kind of - I don’t want to blame the equipment, but half our buildup was cut out waiting for a sensor issue to be resolved in the wing, and then we had a big issue with the wing control system again in the first race, so we felt like we were just battling the whole way from there.
“I think the team did an amazing job getting the boat around the track in as good a shape as they did. It didn’t quite get resolved in time for us to actually make it to the start of race two, so we were off the back of that one, then race three was the first one we actually got to have a normal build-up.
“It’s great to get another really solid result on the board, but it’s a bit of a shame to just miss the final.”
The Black Foils missed the Auckland final. Photo / Ricardo Pinto, SailGP
That race was contested between Australia, Great Britain and Spain, with Australia claiming the title. Last year’s champions, Spain, finished second, while an early error in the final saw Great Britain fall off the pace early and settle for third.
It’s the third different champion of the league’s New Zealand event in as many editions, with Canada and New Zealand winning the regattas in Christchurch. After two events in season five, Great Britain draw level with the Black Foils at the top of the season leaderboard as the only team to make both finals so far.
Heading into the day, the New Zealand crew were sitting in fourth on the leaderboard, just one spot back from third-placed Spain.
Australia were the most consistent team on opening day, and that was again the case as Tom Slingsby had his crew dialled in and on the front foot from the starting line every time. However, they did have to scramble to make the starting line for the final after having to retire from the seventh and final fleet race due to an issue on board.
For the Black Foils, they never really looked to have found the formula to navigate the start successfully. The one time they started well over the weekend, they sailed to a clear win.
But for the most part, they were left out the back of the fleet and fighting for position.
Racing saw plenty of teams struggle with the wind and sea state at a higher level than on day one. Denmark almost capsized before racing even started – but quickly figured things out as they won two of the day’s three fleet races.
The Danes did enough to initially finish in fourth ahead of the Black Foils, but were docked two event points for running into a mark in the first race on Sunday.
Ultimately it was Australia’s weekend, and they will like their chances to bank both titles on the Oceania leg of the season with the Sydney event up next.
