Luna Rossa have sailing problem as Team NZ wins race 4 and levels series.
For a brief moment on Friday afternoon the America’s Cup hopes of Peter Burling and Team New Zealand threatened to flutter away in the light breeze from the north. At 2-1 down in the first-to-7 contest for the Auld Mug, entering the final of two races on a glistening summer’s day in the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland, prospects looked ever so ominous for the cup defenders after they had just been clinically dismantled by the razor-sharp Italian entry, Luna Rossa. But Burling and his staunch crew aboard Te Rehutai never panicked. They never blinked. Even as the pressure must have threatened to suffocate them.
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Luna Rossa skipper Jimmy Spithill is happy after the Italians levelled the America’s Cup match 1-1 on Wednesday.
Folks, we have ourselves a yacht race, with the America’s Cup final poised tantalisingly at 1-1 after an intriguing opening day of ‘The Match’ in Auckland s Hauraki Gulf on Wednesday. Peter Burling and Team New Zealand had drawn first blood with a commanding 31-second victory in the opening race, but any prospect of another one-sided matchup in this 36th edition of sport’s oldest international competition was slam-dunked in race two when Luna Rossa turned the tables brilliantly to eke out a thrilling 7-second win to level the first-to-7 series at 1-1.
It may not yet be the America’s Cup, but Dawson and fellow foiling multihull sailor, Liv Mackay, have been given the opportunity to try to “bridge the gap” – sailing with the Peter Burling and Blair Tuke’s maiden New Zealand crew in the global Sail GP series. Burling, who’s right now at the wheel of the Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand, is on the same page as Dawson and Mackay – he sees no reason why women can’t sail in today’s America’s Cup. But what’s holding them back, he says, is the lack of experience on fast, hi-tech flying machines, and the knowledge to know how to handle them.
Sailing: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke unveil New Zealand SailGP team
2 Feb, 2021 06:35 PM
2 minutes to read
NZ Herald
Olympic gold medallists and defending America s Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have announced their team to compete in SailGP.
The New Zealand SailGP Team co-CEO s squad features Olympic, round-the-world and America s Cup sailors from up and down the country such as Andy Maloney, Josh Junior, Marcus Hansen and Louis Sinclair.
The team share extensive experience in foiling high tech boats as well as world-class high-performance sailing campaigns across 49er, Nacra, and Finn Olympic classes and round the world editions.
Like Burling and Tuke, many of the New Zealand SailGP Team members will combine Olympic campaigns with the SailGP league.