Dean Barker interview - pt1

James Boyd caught up with Team New Zealand's skipper at the Swedish Match Cup

mfs: You were putting in some bad results at the beginning of the year, but recently you seem to have been on fire. What's brought about the change?

DB: It's been brought about by doing incredibly badly before this! The Steinlager Line 7 and the Congressional Cup - we had two bad results there. We didn't feel we were sailing particularly badly but we just couldn't string enough wins together to get through to the semis and go on from there. After the Congessional Cup I sat down with our CEO Ross Blackman and we had discussion about what we should change and what was different.

The big thing I guess for me is that I've gone from just sailing, just thinking about racing and trying to win races to a lot of other responsibilities. It is pretty new for me and it's something I enjoy, but it is pretty easy to get down a lot of the time thinking about other things. So we made the decision - it is time to start thinking about America's Cup and sailing and just going out and racing. I suppose that's been the biggest thing. To me it doesn't feel like we're doing anything any different. We've got more focus on the racing and the results have been - Trieste and then this regatta have been a hell of a lot more successful.

mfs: So it was you rather than the team?

DB: It's never just the skipper. It is about how you are working as a crew. I know from my perspective that was my biggest weakness. I'm sure if one of us isn't on song then the team doesn't perform. I think the skipper gets a lot of undue credit because it is a team thing. The differences in trim and techniques and things are quite often the difference between winning and losing a race.

mfs: How relevant is the Swedish Match Tour to the America's Cup?

I don't think it bears any resemblance to be honest. The America's Cup is a development and design game and it is about the whole program. For sure the skills and the things you're trying to develop, that comes about from doing events like the Swedish Match Cup. You know that unless you've got the complete package, it won't matter how well you match race you won't beat a faster boat or it's a lot harder.

The match racing skills that come from sailing these sorts of boats are applicable to whatever class you sail. But I think it's the fine tuning… the being ready to go and race in an America's Cup race can only be brought about by top quality racing in America's Cup boats. You certainly wouldn't get ready for this regatta by going out and practicing in America's Cup boats, you'd have to sail boat of a similar size and manoeuvrability.

Continued on page 3...

Barker v Coutts in the Swedish Match Cup final