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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: Let's get you to the defending SALEGP champions. Emirates Great

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Speaker 2: Britain topped the twenty twenty five season rankings heading into

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Speaker 2: the Grand Final, having been the strongest and most consistent

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Speaker 2: team throughout last season. They raced superbly in the three

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Speaker 2: boat final to move from last to first, clinching their

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Speaker 2: championship victory ahead of Australia and New Zealand's Black Foils.

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Speaker 2: And they picked up where they left off in the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six season opener in Perth, arriving as champions

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Speaker 2: and leaving as the clear benchmark of the fleet, holding

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Speaker 2: off Australia and France in the final two weeks ago.

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Speaker 2: Their driver is an Olympic gold medalist in twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: one in Tokyo in the forty niner class alongside Stuart Bithel,

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Speaker 2: who actually joins them in this Emirates Great Britain SALEGP team.

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Speaker 2: They won gold that year silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

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Speaker 2: Peter Berling and Blair Chuke. Of course, he is a

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Speaker 2: sailor known for his sharp instincts, calm decision making and

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Speaker 2: fierce competitiveness at the highest level of the sport, and

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Speaker 2: the man now leading one of the most consistent teams

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Speaker 2: in sol GP, talking of course about Dylan Fletcher who

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Speaker 2: joins us now, Dylan, thanks for your time. Does it

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Speaker 2: feel different being being the Hunted rather than the Hunter

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Speaker 2: in sole GP this year?

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Speaker 3: Not really, to be honest, I think that you know,

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Speaker 3: so many top teams and especially you being here in Orkland.

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Speaker 3: We know there's a huge amount of support for the

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Speaker 3: Black Foils and maybe a few less supporters for us,

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Speaker 3: but we're just got out there to give it everything

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Speaker 3: and do what we can to have a good day.

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Speaker 2: You won the season opening event in Perth obviously, so

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Speaker 2: you've picked up where you're left off. How satisfying was

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Speaker 2: it to start the new calendar year with victory in Perth?

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Speaker 3: I was great, to be honest, especially bringing Stud my

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Speaker 3: old forty nine er teammate back in and him on

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Speaker 3: the wing, so to get the wind now, you know,

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Speaker 3: men an awful lot, but ultimately we you know caveat

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Speaker 3: Is obviously the Spanish and the Blackforms weren't sailing, so

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Speaker 3: we know we were missing two top teams and we

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Speaker 3: need to keep up in our game, and it's going to.

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Speaker 4: Be a difficult one out here in Auckland.

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Speaker 2: What did you do particularly well in Perth that you

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Speaker 2: would like to be able to replicate? Obviously, conditions you

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Speaker 2: know need to be the same, obviously, and they may

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Speaker 2: not be. But what did you do well in Perth

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Speaker 2: that you'd like to replicate this weekend?

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Speaker 3: I think we were quite fast, we had good boat handling. Ultimately,

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Speaker 3: we we didn't start very well, which was ladders down

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Speaker 3: until the final when we managed to deliver. But I

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Speaker 3: think we've been talking a lot about working on our

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Speaker 3: starts and just trying to stay out of trouble and

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Speaker 3: ultimately avoid crashing into any of which is quite difficult.

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Speaker 3: When we got thirteen boats about a tight race course here,

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Speaker 3: I was.

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Speaker 2: Going to ask that, actually, because for the first time

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Speaker 2: all thirteen will be there, do you strategize specifically to

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Speaker 2: make sure that you stay out of trouble you know

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Speaker 2: at the start?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we certainly.

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Speaker 3: I guess it's that risk and ultimately looking at being

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Speaker 3: prepared to back off out of situations and maybe give

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Speaker 3: up some meters to ensure that, you know, we keep

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Speaker 3: the boat and the crew safe and we live to

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Speaker 3: fight another day.

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Speaker 2: As getting clean air still the most important thing once

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Speaker 2: the race is underway, or does raw speed sometimes override

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Speaker 2: where you're positioned.

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Speaker 4: I think it's like anything.

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Speaker 3: It's the typical sailboat race, so just trying to balance

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Speaker 3: all of them. I mean, ultimately on this race course

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Speaker 3: here where you know, we've got the southwest east south southwest,

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Speaker 3: so it's super shifty coming off the city, and so

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Speaker 3: I think it's going to be about ensuring we're on

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Speaker 3: the lifted tack more than anything. So I think maybe

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Speaker 3: sailing and gas this weekend might be the right thing.

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Speaker 2: So when you're at there driving, how much of your

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Speaker 2: driving in the year fifty is instinct against what you

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Speaker 2: get in terms of data in the way you pre plan?

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Speaker 4: Most of it's instinct, to be honest.

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Speaker 3: We certainly discuss our route plan and our optimal route

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Speaker 3: as you would sort of in any typical sailing race.

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Speaker 3: And yes we have that data on the screen, but

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Speaker 3: a lot of it is helping us in terms of

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Speaker 3: it's difficult to tell the difference between sixty kilometers now

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Speaker 3: and sixty two kilometers now, whereas you know in your

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Speaker 3: little sailboat, it's it's far easier to pick up on

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Speaker 3: those differences. So I guess the data is really just

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Speaker 3: there as like an additional sense for us to understand

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Speaker 3: what's going on. But ultimately it all comes down toiring instincts.

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Speaker 2: Are we close to the limit of what these these

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Speaker 2: boats can do? They seem to get faster and faster incrementally.

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Speaker 2: Are we close to the limits or not?

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I mean, to be honest, I still think there's there's

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Speaker 3: plenty more to come. We you know, we don't get

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Speaker 3: a huge amount of training in these in these boats,

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Speaker 3: and so well, the whole fleet is getting better everythingle

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Speaker 3: every single time we sail. I mean, we'll see how

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Speaker 3: the how the breeze plays out this weekend. It could

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Speaker 3: be could be real top end potentially the breeziest conditions

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Speaker 3: we sell them.

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Speaker 4: But you know, as we know here, it can be

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Speaker 4: a little bit of anything.

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Speaker 2: And how do you stop expectation which there is now

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Speaker 2: on your team from two into pressure which might not

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Speaker 2: be helpful.

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Speaker 3: I think there is always expectation and that pressure on

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Speaker 3: our shoulders. I think ultimately sports people, that's what we love.

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Speaker 3: We do love that pressure. But thinking soa GPE we

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Speaker 3: have to remember it's a long season and there's the

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Speaker 3: best sailors in the world out here, so we just

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Speaker 3: need to try and deliver our best and that will

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Speaker 3: put us where we are at the end of the day.

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Speaker 2: And just to finish on do you ever, actually when

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Speaker 2: you're out there racing, do you get a moment, even

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Speaker 2: a split sick and to actually enjoy it? Is it's

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Speaker 2: hippening or are you just too busy out there to

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Speaker 2: heaveny scenes of enjoyment as you are racing.

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Speaker 3: I know we certainly do have times, you know, occasional

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Speaker 3: moments to enjoy it. I think, as with anything, it's

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Speaker 3: always more fun when you're winning, but especially you know,

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Speaker 3: when we're racing these boats in the top end conditions,

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Speaker 3: last and long at ninety hundred kN hour, it definitely

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Speaker 3: puts a smile on your face a bit, It.

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Speaker 4: Does a bit, it does well.

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Speaker 2: Looking forward to seeing you out on Watamata Harbor and

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Speaker 2: Aorkland across the weekend and thanks so much for joining

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Speaker 2: us and all the best.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks at b Weekends from midday

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,