Peter Burling interview: 2015 International Moth World Champion
by Jonny Fullerton 16 Jan 2015 10:17 GMT
9-16 January 2015
Jonny Fullerton talks to 2015 International Moth World Champion, Peter Burling of New Zealand, after the final day of the 2015 McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds.
Jonny Fullerton: Just sum it up Pete, I know the emotion has probably slid a little bit since you sailed ashore, but how are you feeling right now?
Peter Burling: Obviously absolutely stoked to take the win there. It's my third attempt at a Moth worlds and to go out for one last race and have a great race is just a great way to go out. Absolutely stoked to get that last race in and take it out.
JF: You managed to finish it off in style, just pipping Nathan over the line.
PB: Yes, I led the race to the top mark and then I think I had two stacks down the run, he had one, and I led the rest of the way round. I was pretty happy with the modifications I'd done to the setup of the boat after the first race of the day when I had a few more swims.
JF: It's been a week of mixed conditions, mainly from one end to another, from light to the extreme, but you've performed really consistently and won most of the races across the wind range - you've been pretty dominant.
PB: I've done a fair bit of work since the last worlds I did in Hawaii where I had a bit of weakness in the light air and obviously stoked to remedy that. I didn't seem to have a weakness this week.
JF: How does this compare with your other achievements? You've had a big 2014 with the 49er Worlds win and you won the Red Bull Youth America's Cup in 2013. How does this stack up?
PB: It's kind of hard to compare them. The 49er Worlds is still the most special one for me to be honest - it's the one that I've been sailing full-time for so many years and to actually manage to win in the boat you sail full-time is absolutely amazing. You could probably compare the Youth AC to this, they're both campaigns that you're not doing full-time, you want to do as well as you can but you have limited time which is one of the reasons that I'm stoked to be able to take it out. Obviously also it's a really fun boat to sail.
JF: As far as the America's Cup is concerned, you obviously finished as top competitor amongst the AC sailors and there's a lot of them here - does that make this a little bit extra special?
PB: It's kind of hard to say to be honest, it doesn't matter who was out there today, I'd have been absolutely stoked to take the worlds anyway. It's definitely extra special to have your mates out there and it's pretty cool to see them all doing these kind of events.
JF: Finally, a nice little moment at the end there when Nathan came over to jump in and hand you over the flag and give you a hand shake - a nice moment for the sport.
PB: Yes, obviously we have a great rivalry but we're great friends as well, it was great to have him there. I've come second to him plenty of times and it's great to be getting a couple off him at the moment.
JF: Congratulations again and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
PB: Cheers.
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