Yachting: Barker battles Cup fatigue in matchracing triumph

The Team NZ skipper fights to keep our top sailors, says SUZANNE McFADDEN.

Dean Barker struggled with exhaustion as he sailed to clinch the world matchracing championships by day, and tried to hold together the besieged Team New Zealand crew by night.

The young Team NZ skipper collapsed triumphant in Croatia yesterday - after winning the world championships and signing on three more America's Cup crew.

But he is only too aware that there is a serious task to complete when he arrives home tomorrow, with more sailors to sway towards staying.

It has been both a harrowing and rewarding week for 27-year-old Barker.

After racing with his four-strong Kiwi crew on the Adriatic Sea every day, Barker would go back to his hotel room to phone and e-mail other Team NZ sailors around the world, trying to get them to stay with the America's Cup defence.

"I'd get to bed about 1 am every night, and then I'd be back out there at seven," Barker said from Croatia yesterday.

"It was mentally exhausting - trying to keep tabs on who's staying and who's going, and concentrating on racing.

"So I'm looking forward to getting home and nailing a few contracts down."

He has succeeded with his four world champion crew - tactician Hamish Pepper, grinder Chris Ward and trimmers Tony Rae and James Dagg - who have given their word that they will stay with Team New Zealand.

"We've still got to finalise a lot of Team NZ stuff - that's the main thing now," Barker said.

Despite the exhaustion, it was still a momentous week in Barker's express-train career.

In just their second appearance at a world championships, the Kiwi crew fought back from being a race down in the semifinals against French Cup skipper Bertrand Pace, to advance to a final showdown with experienced Australian Peter Gilmour.

Three-time winner Gilmour, tipped to skipper the new Seattle syndicate in the next Cup, was no match for Barker yesterday.

In all three races, Gilmour incurred penalties, but the Team NZ crew did not need a handout - they led every time from start to finish.

The victory seems a natural progression for Barker, following in the wake of other famous Kiwi America's Cup skippers.

Chris Dickson was 27 when he won the first of three world matchracing titles in 1988.

Russell Coutts, who relinquished the Team NZ job to Barker, was 30 when he also won the first of his three crowns in 1992.

All three won world youth sailing titles, and started their careers as champions of the famous P class dinghy.

It was also an emotional week for crewman Tony Rae, who decided just before the finals to turn down offers from three foreign syndicates and re-join Team New Zealand.

The talented mainsail trimmer had a "pretty serious" offer from Seattle, which has already claimed designer Laurie Davidson, had spoken with American billionaire Larry Ellison and was approached by Prada.

"With all this going on, I had to make a decision.

"And now I'm able to stay with Team New Zealand which is what I really wanted to do all along," he said.

"With a lot of guys going, it means I can take on a lot more responsibility now. That's the challenge I want.

"One of the big reasons to stay was to carry on our matchracing team with Dean. We've got a big future ahead."

Rae said the crew talked a lot about the tensions at Team New Zealand: "But when the five-minute gun went we switched off the America's Cup and on to racing.

"We really had to try to push aside everything that was going on at home."

Barker's crew are now number one on the Swedish Match world series list, with fellow Kiwi Cameron Appleton in fourth place after reaching the finals of the Steinlager Line 7 event in Auckland two months ago.