Barker: I'm the best

DEAN BARKER says it's not the Kiwi way to spout on about it ... but deep down he believes he's the best sailor in the world.

Better than Brad Butterworth. Better than Russell Coutts. No1. End of story.

"I have never been one to blow my own trumpet and stand up and say I am the best in the world. I like to go out and prove that on the water. But on any given day I can beat them, so," he says, pausing to think about his words. "Yes, I guess that means I think I'm the best in the world."

On Saturday, we will start to get a clearer picture on whether he's correct when all three Kiwi sailing greats go head-to-head on almost identical America's Cup class yachts.

Months, and in the case of Coutts, years of frustration will be vented during the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour. While the America's Cup is in legal limbo, this regatta is a welcome chance to bring together the world's best sailors.

Team New Zealand's fate rests on Barker's shoulders, as does his own reputation.

Barker is recognised as one of our best helmsmen in the sport but to many he has never fully emerged from the considerable shadow cast by his more august peers, Coutts and Butterworth.

His extraordinary skill is his ability to intuitively extract, in tandem with the yacht's trimmers, boat speed. Coutts has it too: the ability to squeeze something extra out of a boat that can become the difference between winning and losing.

In this series, all the boats will be tuned to the same specifications so that performance is as close to identical as possible. That means the difference will come to how well they are sailed.

"So the challenge of in this series is going to be special," said Barker. "We will sail on an even playing field. It's going to be like a match-racing event because the effect of the boats has been eliminated, to a point, so the best team will win, not every race, but by the end of the series the best team will be found. That's why it's so exciting."

No time for gambling then you might think.

Yet Barker and Team New Zealand are planning to mix things up a little and experiment with a new afterguard structure. The change was forced in some ways by the defection of team tactician Terry Hutchinson.

The American was heavily criticised for making a couple of calls that crucially backfired during Team New Zealand's thrilling America's Cup loss to Alinghi in Valencia in 2007.

In that series, which Butterworth won 5-2, the Kiwis used a five-man formation in the afterguard. Barker has now reverted to four. Strategist Ray Davies has been promoted to tactician, while the super reliable navigator Kevin Hall and bowman cum wind spotter Adam Beashel have both been retained in the team's key decision-making roles.

This will allow an extra grinder to join the crew and relieve the load on the boat's big men who are expected to be kept busy on the tight Waitemata course.

"We didn't see how the fifth person would add any value in a 30 to 40 minute race," Barker said. "It was different in Valencia because we had to change our plans from time to time but here we will have to come up with a strategy and stick to it and an extra grinder will bring some much needed horsepower on the boat and that will be beneficial."

To become a great skipper, you have to get the best out of your team, and if the old combinations that worked so well in Valencia take time to gel again, then Butterworth, Coutts and possibly Ben Ainslie of Team Origin will pounce. Butterworth is famous for his tactical nous, Coutts for his icy calm, Barker for his even temperament.

"It [temperament] sets the attitude on the boat," he said.

"So it's not a case of getting on the boat and banging the boom and giving a rah-rah pep talk. Our style is to chip away at the things we are good at and even if we are behind in a race then we get back into it and pass a guy by staying cool. Teams are not comfortable racing us even when in front because our temperament is even.

"I always believe that is a strength in my match-racing, that I have absolutely no fear or worry about racing any of these guys because you do it on a daily basis in these cup environments.

"It's very hard to describe but on any given day you can have an absolute blinder on the boat and everything goes sensational. The team goes good, there is a positive vibe and everything clicks. You feel like you have all this time to make decisions. Everything is operating as if in slow motion but it's actually at full speed."

After the highs of Valencia, 2008 was an odd year for Barker as he experienced the bitter blow of watching the cup contest unravel in the courts. He followed the twists and turns, even sifting through court documents loaded on various websites to try to decipher exactly what was going on. Like many others, the experience frustrated him.

He still managed to fit in an estimated 150 days on the water,including sailing for the King of Spain in the Med Cup.

On the home front he was similarly busy as his wife Mandy, a former New Zealand hockey star, gave birth to the couple's third daughter just before Christmas. Their three girls are aged 3 1/2, 15 months and 11 weeks.

Barker is hoping peace can be restored in the legal wrangle for the cup and Team New Zealand can start designing a boat for the next regatta, scheduled for 2010. In the meantime, he will skipper the team's TP52 campaign in Europe this year.

Although Barker has many years of sailing ahead of him, whether by accident or design, he's now shaping as a logical syndicate head of the future, although that depends on what current boss Grant Dalton decides to do.

"I have been involved in three different campaigns now and the different styles of leadership have been a real eye-opener. I have gone from [Sir Peter] Blake to [Tom] Schnackenberg to [Grant] Dalton last time.

"They are three very different people and I think the one thing I have learnt from them all is to get the best out of people by leading by example.

"It is hard to ask a guy to step up and get better and better if you are not doing it yourself," he says.

"So I feel if I can go out there and prove myself at whatever job I take on it will give the other guy confidence and force them to lift their game as well." 

- © Fairfax NZ News