Peter Burling and Blair Tuke will celebrate Christmas before they contemplate their 49er World Championship title defence

Burling and Tuke's return to world champion status in Auckland over the weekend will be remarkably under threat in just two months time in Geelong.

The worlds are being held back-to-back in the southern hemisphere and with the Olympics also next year, it creates the unusual situation of two world championships in three months.

Burling says they're looking forward to a bit of downtime off this boat and the America's Cup one.