Burling and Dalton have split.  

Team New Zealand has lost the services of their greatest skipper, the most successful America’s Cup helmsman and the positive face of the team.  

Burling has yet to speak of the breakdown, Dalton has been quick to put his side of the story out into the ether – I’m sure in time we’ll hear Burling's view and from there we’ll draw our own conclusions. Let's not forget, there are three sides to every story: your side, their side, and somewhere in between lies the truth.  

There are a few considerations to take into account around this divorce.    

Sail GP. Burling is the CEO of the Black Foils. The series is the future of high profile, high speed, and high budget sailing. It is a global, regularly staged, easily understood and dynamic series. Burling hasn’t won it, but he’s held aloft the Auld Mug thrice. The pull between Coutts (Sail GP) and Dalton (America’s Cup) for the services of one of the biggest names in sailing may well have reached breaking point and Burling can see the untapped future of the former. The likelihood of either series being content with Burling straddling both events in 2027 is low if not non-existent.  

In Sail GP, Burling is the boss, in America’s Cup he isn’t. He’s achieved everything in America’s Cup but has yet to stand atop the GP series.   

I’d also think that the prospect of spending the next two years in a warehouse with Dalton doesn’t fill his heart with joy.  

Burling can’t race for another America’s Cup team, he doesn’t fit the eligibility criteria, so he’s not being lured away in that sense, but the prospect of an advisory role with a challenger with minimal time away from home and a fat paycheque is not out of the question.  

Maybe Burling just can’t stomach the Cup’s absence from New Zealand any longer. He doesn’t want to be party to the face slap that is TNZ’s continued engagement with offshore defences.   

And then there’s the most important campaign he has ever been involved in. One where the first few years is of utmost import to get right and fully engaged with. It’s a campaign that means more than any medal, any cup, any fiscal reward.  

Pete Burling is a dad. I’d suggest that role is the most instrumental in his decision making.   

You can’t get that time back. A man’s got to work, but at what cost?  

The Sail GP commitment over America's Cup is a no brainer for me.   

Being a dad is the most important role he’ll ever have.  

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