Dean Barker raced for Team Japan at last year's America's Cup. Photo / Photosport
Kiwi Dean Barker has been linked to the New York Yacht Club's America's Cup team.
New York Yacht Club CEO and skipper Terry Hutchinson has hired Barker to helm the Quantum Racing campaign in the 52 Super Series campaign in the Mediterranean.
The monohull Super Series is seen as the main training ground for 2021 Cup teams, at least until they can start sailing their first new AC75 in 2019.
The yacht club has already indicated it will enter the 2021 America's Cup in Auckland.
Hutchinson has a relationship with Barker as tactician in the 2007 Cup in Valencia on Emirates Team New Zealand, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series over Prada, but losing to defender Team Alinghi.
Barker sat out the 2010 Cup, the Deed of Gift match between Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing, won by Oracle. He was back at the wheel for Team New Zealand in the 2013 match in San Francisco, which the Kiwis lost 9-8 after leading 8-1.
The skipper was then involved in an acrimonious split with Team New Zealand. At the time he said he was gutted at the way he was treated by the team.
"I have always remained loyal to Team New Zealand. I could have gone a number of other times, to go and work for other teams. I had an approach from Alinghi, Luna Rossa, but for me it's never been about working for another team. It's not about the money. It's about bringing the America's Cup back to New Zealand."
Last year he was back in the Cup as CEO/skipper of SoftBank Team Japan in Bermuda where they lost in the challenger semifinals to Sweden's Artemis Racing 4-3.
Barker has been non-committal about his sailing future after Bermuda.
He admitted he had mixed emotions watching Team New Zealand regain the Cup.
"Reflecting back on the racing, particularly the racing between Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA, I cannot help but be impressed with the domination that ETNZ showed. They were truly a class above the rest, and the radically different design and innovation that the team had taken ended up far superior to the solutions the other teams had found," Barker said.
"Having been a part of Team New Zealand for a large part of my career, it is with mixed emotions that I watch the team take the America's Cup back to New Zealand."
Barker said having the America's Cup back in Auckland would be massive for sailing and the New Zealand economy.
"It will be amazing to have the America's Cup back on New Zealand waters and it will be a great boost to the New Zealand marine industry as a whole."
Logic says Auckland has about as much chance as a tissue paper mainsail.