Dean Barker interview - pt2

The Team New Zealand skipper continues to give his views about the new America's Cup

Today we publish part two of James Boyd's interview with Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. See part one here .

mfs: What the downside of being the defender?

DB: The cons would be the fact you don't have any real competition outside of the team. So you have to be able to create that in-house, but I think that can also be a strength. Also we don't really know how we stack up against the challengers, where we are in relation to them. We can do a lot of guessing, but that's all it really is. I suppose you look at the arguments for and against - we don't have structured racing, we don't have to front up for any deadlines until race one of the America's Cup. Our program can slide if you're not careful. That's something you've got to really take care of.

mfs: To what degree can you react to what you see happening in the Louis Vuitton Cup?

DB: You can, but it's incredibly hard to look at a boat and say 'well, that's fast for that reason'. You have to look at the whole package. We can obviously make improvements, look at what the other guys are doing and take things from that. But the America's Cup has always been about being proactive rather than reactive. That's a philosophy that's been with Team New Zealand since 1995 and the team has always gone with what they believe in and up til now it's worked.

mfs: Last time you had a couple of technological jumps over the other teams. Do you think that you or one of the other teams will have the same sort of leap this time?

DB: How would you know? I guess you are always hoping that you'll have something that will give you that magic. Having that advantage makes going out and racing that much easier. The reality of it is that you have to wonder if there are those sort of opportunities still there. We have to soldier on in the belief that our boats are better than the challengers' and just hope we're not proven wrong.

NZL-60 is only a starting point. Like us we've had to move on from there. Because 60 was a fantastic boat, but unless you can make an improvement on that you are not in the hunt, because you know everyone else will be.

mfs: Who is going to win the Louis Vuitton Cup? Are there going to be any surprises?

DB: I think there is potential for some of the teams to upset some of the other teams. There are enough good sailors in some of the so-called lower budget teams that could really cause some problems. But I wouldn't want to even start guessing who's going to be there at the start of race one of the America's Cup. It is wide open, which is great. The last time right from the outset it was Prada and whoever else could get to them. But this time there is probably five or six that I'd rate there now.

Continued on page 2...