Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

The sailing world is awash with the talk of the spectacular performance of Tauranga's Peter Burling and the Kiwi team at Bermuda.

The Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling has steered and strategised the flying catamaran into a dream position.

Here in hometown Tauranga, we're not surprised but simply delighted that Peter Burling and the young team is breathing down the necks of sailing's big guns.

He's been destined for this ever since taking to the Tauranga harbour in sailing dinghies.

Yachting critics are gobsmacked as to how such a relatively young and inexperienced team could have their foot on the throat of Oracle going into this weekend.

Apart from skipper Glenn Ashby, none of the ETNZ boat crew have any America's Cup racing experience. A couple of the sailing squad had not even sailed yachts before this regatta in Bermuda.

Few people realise the NZ crew is a young team. The average age is only 28 years, and that's including old boy Ashby at 39.



One sailing writer, Richard Gladwell, credits the Kiwi success to a couple of key elements. One is team chemistry. "These are guys who enjoy sailing together. Four of the nine from the NZL Sailing team are essentially the NZ Olympic sailing squad. Four of the nine were in the winning crew in the 2013 Youth America's Cup in San Francisco."
And five of the crew are Olympians, be it in sailing, cycling or rowing.

That means they are highly "trainable" and capable of taking on new concepts and taking those and their own performance to extreme levels.

Feeling among the supporters in hometown Tauranga is that our boat is fast; that there's not room or time for an Oracle comeback.

But this weekend that hope may be confirmed. Unlike that time in San Francisco that we don't like to talk about, when the Oracle boat struggled to stay on its foils and they made mistakes, once they'd solved the foiling issue the comeback was fast and brutal.
However, this time it appears both boats are staying foiling but the Kiwis are quicker.

Fingers crossed it stays that way!



Local multihull fanatic Lance Putan was in Bermuda for the early races and says the first race on Sunday will be the telling point; whether the Oracle team have caught up enough speed to foot it against Burling and the flying Kiwis.  

He says it all seems to be in the foils, with NZ pointing higher and faster on the upwind legs and having vastly-superior hydraulic power, thanks to the cyclor pedal concept.
Tauranga is pumped and primed for the next set of races, so get downtown to the waterfront or along to the yacht club to support our team.

Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club at Sulphur Point is all set for the Sunday start to racing, and Lance and fellow multihull fan Roger Clark have lined up six exercycles so supporters can pedal while they cheer on the Kiwis!

brian@thesun.co.nz