Peter Burling admits the timing could not be better.
After weeks of intense repair work on Amokura, the Black Foils were back on the Waitematā Harbour this afternoon (this time with Kane Williamson, New Zealand cricketer), running their first on-water checks ahead of the Auckland event.
Just hours after completing the final stages of Amokura’s rebuild, Roger Mills captured the Kiwi crew putting their F50 through its paces on the Waitematā Harbour.
“I think we’re pretty glad today’s not our first day of racing to be honest. It looks a little bit bleak out there. But yeah, tomorrow the forecast looks absolutely epic.”
Conditions were grey and gusty for the shakedown sail, but the focus was firmly on systems validation rather than performance. Steering, hydraulics, foil control and electronics were all put under load following the structural rebuild completed at C-Tech in Avondale.
Looking ahead to race day, Burling is already picturing the spectacle.
“Reasonably strong, kind of south-wester. So that’ll be pretty special seeing all 13 boats reaching into this massive grandstand above us here. We’re absolutely stoked to be racing again on home waters.”
The Auckland event will mark the first time this season that all 13 SailGP teams line up together (after Spain was not able to compete at all in Perth), following the extensive mid season rebuild effort that spanned Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts confirmed the full fleet at today’s press conference.
“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the Shared Services team, SailGP Technologies, did an amazing job. And then we’ve had incredible support from local company C-Tech in helping make the repairs and supply not only the facilities to do it, but help us with the labour as well. So it’s been a monumental effort. But they’ll be back on the start line this weekend.”
