KEY POINTS:
New leadership, new personnel and renewed confidence means the last America's Cup is yachting history for Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker.
Barker and his crew reassemble in Valencia this weekend to begin final preparations for the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' series beginning next month.
From Monday, they will be out testing their race boats, NZL84 and NZL92, in the Mediterranean waters off the Spanish port city.
It was four years ago today that Swiss syndicate Alinghi prised away the Auld Mug by completing a 5-0 whitewash off Auckland.
The quietly-spoken Barker was one of the public faces of Team NZ's failed defence, fronting up at the post-race press conference after each loss.
He said the team had come a long way since a defeat in which major gear problems twice prevented NZL82 from completing the course.
"There's a completely different feeling, the way everything has developed," he said.
"We've moved a long, long way and addressed a lot of the issues that were evident the last time."
Those issues included management structure and the equipment the sailors were given.
The set-up last time, where design, sailing and administration were overseen by three different people who reported to a board, was replaced by having one person at the top in managing director Grant Dalton.
"The first thing was the focus on a strong leadership, which is what Grant was brought to do," Barker said.
"We've also addressed the issue of reliability, which is the other obvious thing that was lacking the last campaign."
Barker, 33, will be sailing in his third America's Cup.
He was part of Team NZ's defence in 2000 as back-up helmsman to Russell Coutts, and was given the chance to drive NZL60 in the final race of a 5-0 sweep of Italy's Luna Rossa.
When Coutts and others jumped ship and switched to Alinghi, Barker took over.
But the master proved too wily for the apprentice as Coutts, with a reliable boat and a strong organisation behind him, cemented his status as the cup's most dominant skipper by leading Alinghi to victory.
Despite the huge disappointment of losing the Auld Mug, Barker said it was a case of moving on quickly and another cup campaign had always been on his mind.
He believed he had "matured dramatically" as a skipper and helmsman in the intervening years.
"A lot of that has been having time to focus on the sailing element," he said.
"Having Grant there has allowed me more time to concentrate on doing my job better, which is going to be crucial to the performances in Spain."
Barker will have both new and familiar faces with him on board.
Among the new are tactician Terry Hutchinson and navigator Kevin Hall, Americans who came from Stars and Stripes and One World respectively.
"We've got a bunch of guys that were here at the last cup and we've got a bunch of new guys that have come in from other teams and other sailing," he said.
"It's a new team now and on different personal levels we've all got things we want to do.
"From my perspective, there will be nothing more satisfying than to show what the team is capable of in Valencia."
Another difference is that Team NZ will be challengers rather than defenders.
Under the cup format, the 11 challengers will battle it out amongst themselves for two months, before the winners goes head-to-head with Alinghi in mid-June in a best-of-nine showdown.
The possibility of having to race more than 50 times, as opposed to as few as five as the defenders, required a different mindset, Barker said.
It also meant that, in theory, the eventual challengers should be match-hardened and to address the defenders' traditional lack of racing beforehand, Alinghi introduced the build-up regattas.
Known as the Louis Vuitton Acts, they have run over the past three years and will conclude with Act 13, a fleet-racing event early next month before the challengers' series begins on April 16.
"Alinghi have changed the rules to give themselves a bit of an edge -- they've been able to check in with all the challengers to see where they stand," Barker said.
"But at the same time, I think it is harder from a defence standpoint -- and I know having experienced it twice now.
"The only real racing you get is against yourselves and it's never really quite the same as going in and racing for points."
History would appear to back up that assessment. Barring New Zealand's rogue big-boat bid in 1998, the Auld Mug has changed hands after four the past six cup encounters dating back to 1983.
However, Barker remained wary of Alinghi, describing them as being extremely strong and having great depth, good boats and good equipment.
"Whoever gets through the challengers' series will be up against it."
Barker said Team NZ's ability to finish top of the table in last year's Acts 10 to 12 gave them confidence they were on the right track.
But the big unknown was how the opposition had progressed over the past six months.
"A lot of teams have new boats and it's going to be a little bit of a waiting game just to see where we stack up against the others," he said.
"We have confidence for sure that we'll be there or thereabouts, but exactly how the pecking order establishes itself is anyone's guess right now."
- NZPA
