Tauranga sailor Peter Burling is being billed as the 'man to beat” at this week's 2015 Moth World Championships in Australia.

Starting on Saturday, the Team New Zealand newcomer goes up against more than 150 seasoned America's Cup veterans, Olympic medallists and world champions, in the southeast corner of Victoria.

Emirates Team New Zealand's Peter Burling (in focus). Photo: Supplied.

Burling is joined by Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, Ray Davies, while World Championship 49er class partner Blair Tuke is also there, looking to test the work they have done with the foiling moths over the last few months.

The Moth class, at just under 3.5m long and 26kg, is a high performance, single-handed development class, with sailors reaching high speeds of up to 60km/h.

The Kiwi contingent's key rivals will be Artemis helmsman and 2014 moth world champion Nathan Outteridge (Australia), along with Oracle's Tom Slingsby (Australia), Philippe Presti (France), Rome Kirby (USA) and Joe Newton (Australia).

Others include former world champion Bora Gulari, British Laser Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison and 49er Olympic bronze medallist Chris Draper.

And with various sailors taking part from both Team NZ and Oracle, the championships holds the potential for another race off between the two America's Cup finalists.

Slingsby, who is rated Oracle's brightest young talent, believes Burling is shaping up as the biggest threat for the world title.

'Peter Burling is the man to beat,” he says. 'I've been watching him, he's sailing really well and improving all the time.

'Realistically, there are 10-15 people who could win the worlds. People are coming up with new twists all the time.”

The Tauranga sailor had a stellar 2014 with Tuke, winning both the House of Travel Sailor of the Year Award and 49er world title at the ISAF Sailing World Championships for the second straight year.

Last year was the pair's first taste of being part of Team NZ, sailing under team colours on the Extreme Sailing Series, and they'll be keen to stamp their mark early on this season.

Ashby, who has won more world championship trophies across a broad range of multihull classes than anyone else, is looking forward to the stiff competition.

He says: 'This regatta will be, without doubt, the single most high-performance regatta I've ever done.”

'There'll be at least eight Olympic medallists, three Moth world champions and 15 America's Cup sailors.”

The 2015 Moth World Championships runs from Saturday January 9 to Friday 16 based out of the Sorrento Sailing and Couta Boat Club in Victoria, Australia.