New Zealand will join the US$1 million (NZ$1.49m) SailGP championship next season with a team led by defending America's Cup champions and Olympic gold medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.
The New Zealand SailGP Team will be among the fleet of high-speed foiling catamarans due to hit the water again in April 2021, after a coronavirus hiatus, with Burling and Tuke serving as co-chief executives of the team.
SailGP was first launched in 2018 by Kiwi Sir Russell Coutts and stages regattas around the world in F50 catamarans.
"SailGP provides an annual platform for professional, high-performance sailing on the global stage, which strongly complements our existing America's Cup and Olympic commitments," says Burling.
San Francisco is due to host the first Grand Prix of the second season of SailGP, which will now feature eight national teams competing in catamarans, that can hit speeds of more than 50 knots (93 kph).
Burling and Tuke, who have won two Olympic medals and six world titles in the 49er class, are training to defend their America's Cup title with Team New Zealand in Auckland next year, before turning to their Olympic defence in Tokyo.
"They [Burling and Tuke] are among the best of the best in the world, and will no doubt be incredibly competitive in SailGP," says Coutts.
The New Zealand duo aim to use SailGP, bankrolled by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, to raise awareness of ocean health.
"Our aim is to build a winning, commercially viable race team from New Zealand that has ocean protection and restoration in its DNA," says Tuke.
The SailGP catamarans, which lift up above the water on hydrofoils, are an updated version of those in which Burling and Tuke won the America's Cup in Bermuda in 2017.
Reuters
