HAMILTON: Peter Burling is looking forward to “a pretty cool few weeks” sharing his America’s Cup win with the rest of New Zealand after celebrating the conclusion of a gruelling campaign with his opponent Jimmy Spithill in Bermuda.
The 26-year-old calmly steered his way into yachting history on Monday, demolishing Spithill’s Oracle Team USA to win the trophy which is a national obsession in New Zealand and in the process become the youngest ever sailor to do so.
“It was our goal and dream to come here and win the America’s Cup and to have it sitting there and have it in the morning meeting when we all got together after a bit of recovery from last night, we’re just blown away,” Burling told Reuters.
Burling, an Olympic gold and silver medallist, was helmsman on Emirates Team New Zealand and the face of the crew during the campaign to wrest the “Auld Mug” from its US holders.
The celebrations following the win in the New Zealand team’s “shed” where they have kept their space-age 50-foot catamaran and “wing” sail were “pretty low key”, with the crew only realising how drained they were once the adrenaline wore off.
“We finally realised how tired we were and how most of us didn’t really have that much energy to carry on,” Burling said on Tuesday at his headquarters in Bermuda’s historic Dockyard.
Friend
Burling said the losing US team led by his “good friend” Spithill, who until the Kiwi victory had been the youngest ever helmsman to win the oldest trophy in international sport, had joined the New Zealanders in their celebration.
“They came over and said congrats last night and we invited them in. It was pretty cool to be able to share it with them.”
And any antagonism between the two during the competition on Bermuda’s Great Sound was “a bit of friendly banter”.