KEY POINTS:
Good lord what a start.
Peter Lester was dumbfounded, the media centre was silent in disbelief, the Spanish were mortified.
What on earth was Dean Barker doing?
The New Zealanders botched up the start against Victory Challenge trailing the Swedes over the line by 18 seconds. It looked like they got disorientated.
But they were quick enough to get around and win. The Swedes did make a mistake but the New Zealand boat was pretty quick downwind.
It has set the scene for a great match tonight between Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing.
The Spanish were toasting Team New Zealand's success last night. Team New Zealand's win over Victory Challenge meant the Spanish secured the final semifinal spot. They went into party mode even though they'd just lost to Oracle by 55 seconds. So impressed were they with Barker that the journos put a big picture of him on the wall in the media centre.
In other news the day before they squared off against Team New Zealand a Victory Challenge sailor was asked if he was worried about racing Team New Zealand. To which he replied "the only thing I am worried about at the moment is how much my wife is going to spend on a dress for the Louis Vuitton Ball. Team New Zealand is the last of my worries."
Yesterday we also forgot to discuss commentator John McBeth's starring role in Team New Zealand's win over Luna Rossa. McBeth was 18th man and did a fine job. The sailors said they were impressed McBeth managed to keep quiet for so long.
We were just disappointed we never got to see him in action in the water wings, he had secretly smuggled on board.
