SailGP Sydney 2024: Local Nathan Outteridge helming New Zealand thanks to sailing baby boom

It's not every day an Aussie gets the call-up to lead a New Zealand sporting team into battle but that’s what’s happened to this Olympian thanks to a strange coincidence in his sport.

Nathan Outteridge when he stood in for the skipper of the Danish entry in Abu Dhabi. Picture: Felix Diemer/SailGP

A former Olympic champion from the NSW central coast has become the most wanted man in sailing thanks to a baby boom in the sport.

London Olympic gold medallist Nathan Outteridge will be steering the New Zealand F50 in the Sydney SailGP this weekend for regular skipper Peter Burling - a man he beat for gold at the 2012 Games but who beat him in his Olympic defence in Rio four years later.

Now Outteridge is doing his old frenemy a favour, answering the call to be the Kiwi’s stand-in skipper in Sydney as Burling takes parental leave.

In a strange coincidence, three of the skippers in the SailGP series have either become or are about to become fathers this season, including Australia skipper Tom Slingsby, now the proud father of baby son Leo.

While Slingsby called in another Sydneysider in James Spithill as his replacement, Outteridge also filled in for the Danish skipper so he could be present at the birth of his child late last year.

Nathan Outteridge racing as the strategist and sailing adviser of Switzerland.

Nathan on the Danish boat.

“All these people seem to be having kids at an inappropriate time,’’ laughed Outteridge, who is now based in New Zealand and part of the America's Cup team.

“My Jack, my son, was born two weeks before a SailGP event and Charlie at the beginning of January so it was perfectly timed.’’

Nathan Outteridge and Tom Slingsby, who both grew up on the Central Coast, will be rivals again in the SailGP. Picture: Katelyn Mulcahy/SailGP.

Outteridge was the former driver of the Japanese team which twice finished runner-up to old mate Slingsby who Australian crew lead the series from the Kiwis heading into the Sydney event on Saturday and Sunday on Sydney Harbour.

“While I’d love to be racing, staying home for such an important milestone for me and my family is an obvious decision,’’ Burling said of the impending birth of his first child with partner Lucinda Nelson.

“We’re incredible fortunate to have someone of Nathan’s calibre able to join us - he’s one of the best and we know he will slot right in.’’

The Australian team leads the professional sailing series overall but is still hunting for their first leg win of the season and will go into the Sydney event as favourite’s to break their season five drought.