Yachting: New-look Team NZ get five days' preparation

Peter Burling will be the helmsman for Team NZ. File photo / NZME.

Team New Zealand's campaign will finally take to the water next week with the new-look crew hoping to put the months of turmoil behind them.

The Kiwi syndicate has undergone massive personnel changes this year, firstly as a result of a restructure, in which former skipper Dean Barker was the major casualty, before a flurry of walk-outs in late May. Grinders Winston Macfarlane and Derek Saward, along with pitman Jeremy Lomas all resigned in quick succession less than two months ago, with the latter two joining Barker at Team Japan.

The late resignations of the trio, who were all part of the crew for the team's unsuccessful challenge in San Francisco two years ago, left Emirates Team New Zealand scrambling to get a crew together for the first stop on the America's Cup World Series circuit in Portsmouth, beginning on Thursday.

The team trialled several youngsters during a week of testing in the team's new foiling AC45 catamaran in Southampton last month, with Guy Endean and Harry Thurston selected to join the existing crew of Glenn Ashby, Ray Davies, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke for the opening regatta. Endean has previously sailed with the team in the Extreme 40 series last year, while Thurston competed against Burling and Tuke in the Youth America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013.

The new crew assemble in Portsmouth today and will have just five days to refamiliarise themselves with the boat before the 35th America's Cup cycle officially kicks off.

With most of their key rivals including Oracle Team USA and local team Ben Ainslie Racing having had months of training in the new foiling catamarans - dubbed the AC45F - Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling said his team faced a steep learning curve over the next week.

"Five days of training is not a lot of time for us sailing in the foiling catamarans and a few of the other teams have got the jump up in that department just because they've spent so much time sailing foiling cats.

"It's something we're definitely a little behind on in terms of the hours spent on the boat, but we're really happy with the team," said Burling. "It's great to have the experienced guys like Glenn Ashby and Ray Davies guiding us along, which speeds up the learning curve."

There will be a lot of pressure on Burling to make a big impression in his first America's Cup regatta with Team NZ as the team resumes their old rivalry with Oracle, led by by the king of niggle, Jimmy Spithill. And there'll likely be new rivalries take hold as well, with the presence of so many ex-Team NZ crew at Barker's Japanese syndicate setting up an enticing showdown.

But Burling and his Olympic sailing partner Tuke have proven they excel under the spotlight. The pair head into next week's regatta fresh off a remarkable comeback win at the 49er European Championships, after a loss in the jury room threatened to bring their incredible unbeaten run stretching back to the London Olympics to an end.

A slow start to the Portugal regatta had Burling and Tuke in chase mode early on, but by mid-way through the event the young Kiwi duo were back on top of the leaderboard.

But a protest late on the penultimate day resulted in the New Zealanders being disqualified and relegated to third place overall heading into the final day. Sailing media zeroed in on the battle going on in Portugal, predicting Burling and Tuke's stunning run was about to come to an end courtesy of a jury ruling.

But despite their frustration at the jury's decision, the pair recorded a win and two second placings on the final day to defend their title by a comfortable margin in the end.

"We were kind of reading a few of those articles on social media on the morning of the last race," said Burling. "For people like myself and Blair we enjoy that kind of stuff. To be a good yachtie and win events you've got to be able to produce good results under pressure, and that's something we pride ourselves on being able to do."

World series

America's Cup World Series, Portsmouth, July 23-26
Emirates Team New Zealand crew:
Peter Burling (helmsman), Glenn Ashby, Ray Davies, Blair Tuke, Guy Endean, Harry Thurston.