Yachting: Barker hits his straps

Dean Barker. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Dean Barker seized every favourable wind shift to win the Auckland match-racing regatta as the present and future of New Zealand yachting enjoyed success on the Waitemata Harbour yesterday.

Team New Zealand's Barker, who had earlier looked as if he might not make the final, beat British triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie 2-0 in a first-to-three final cut short by lack of wind.

He had been favoured earlier by a morning calm patch that saw two flights of the round-robin cancelled and yachting's version of cricket's Duckworth-Lewis system promote him to the semifinals at the expense of Pole Karol Jablonski.

In the semifinals, he took advantage of a wind change up to 18 knots to down young Kiwi Adam Minoprio 2-0. Minoprio had twice beaten Barker in lighter conditions in the round-robin and he secured third place by beating Torvar Mirsky 2-0 in the petite final.

Ainslie, the pace-setter for the entire regatta, accounted for Australian Mirsky in the semis but was no match for Barker in the two final races, losing by 40s and 35s before the wind died completely and racing was abandoned at 5.30pm.

The final was meant to have been a best-of-five but the wind died after race two and, after waiting for more than an hour for conditions to pick up, officials called the boats in.

"In the morning when we came back in, we had the boat packed up not really expecting to be still racing," said Barker.

"For once the tiebreaker worked in our favour. We scraped into the semis and really from there, as the conditions changed to a little bit more normal, we hit our straps, which was great. Probably the best time to do it."

Ainslie said he was disappointed but that was the game in match racing. Both skippers said the experience was great going into next week's Louis Vuitton Trophy on the Waitemata, starting on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Minoprio, hardly a household name outside the yachting fraternity, fully lived up to his No 1 ranking on the world match racing circuit.

He and his crew of Daniel McLean, Dave Swete, Tom Powrie and Nick Blackman won three regattas last year and took the title by winning the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia.

For the Omega Auckland event they were joined by Adam's older brother Simon as tactician - an appropriate choice considering his background in the sport.

Minoprio is the youngest of three brothers who began sailing in Whangarei in Optimists built with their boatbuilder father, Chris. Adam's early success included the 1997 Optimist nationals with Simon in second place.

"With three brothers you could say we were competitive, extremely competitive," said Minoprio.

He graduated through the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron youth scheme and has been sailing with the same crew for three or four years. On hold is an engineering degree for which he still has to complete a couple of papers.

Minoprio had trouble getting on to the world circuit but, through an association with Team New Zealand and sponsors FedEx, his Black Match crew began to get invitations to compete around the world.

"One of the toughest things at some regattas was finding something to eat that we could afford. Sometimes we got accommodation and food and sometimes only accommodation."

Minoprio took pleasure in beating Barker, "the benchmark", in the round-robin. He didn't use the changed conditions for an excuse, saying "we didn't really think about things as well as he did.

"If you asked me before the regatta began, I would have settled for third. We did all the racing we could and learned a lot. It was awesome to have such a talented field and to finish ahead above lots of famous names in yachting."

Between regattas Minoprio makes a living sailing for other people round the world. He won't be competing in the Louis Vuitton so his next major assignment is the start of the world match racing circuit in Marseille in April.