Yachting: Barker hopes to rise above lady luck

Dean Barker. Photo / Getty Images

The weather gods may have been on his side in the finals of the Omega match racing regatta at the weekend, but Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker is hoping he will not need to rely on luck quite so much in this week's Louis Vuitton trophy.

After winning the lead-up regatta on Saturday, Barker and his crew will be back on the water today for a final tune-up as they turn their attention to the big boats for the second stop of the Louis Vuitton world circuit. Many of the sailors taking part also competed in the four-day Omega match racing regatta, which concluded on Saturday with Barker making the most of a weather-assisted reprieve to win.

Barker beat British triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie 2-0 in a first-to-three final cut short by lack of wind.

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

After lady luck intervened Barker found his rhythm at the right time, disposing of Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch racing crew in the semifinals before bringing down Ainslie - who up until that point had looked untouchable - in the final.

"We don't really like doing it that way, it's not good for the nerves," said Barker, who had packed up his boat for the day before he was given word the points had been recalculated.

"Fortunately, for once the tie-breaker worked in our favour and we scraped into the semis and really from there as the conditions changed to a little bit more normal, we sort of hit our straps."

Barker said their mixed performances during the round-robin stages exposed a few areas of weakness in his team which he hopes they can get right before the Louis Vuitton - the Auckland Festival of Sail's marquee event.

"We need to work on sailing in those very light and unpredictable winds. It's certainly not our strength."

Both Barker and Ainslie, the Team Origin skipper, said the match racing regatta had primed them well for the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

"Without question, it's a good practice for us. The racing starts on Tuesday so there's not really too much time to relax, but we're very focused on trying to get a good result," said Barker.

Added Ainslie: "Any match racing experience is always invaluable. We learned a lot out there. It will be a very different challenge in the bigger boats and further out in the harbour, but it was very good preparation for us."

The pair, who are former sparring partners at Team New Zealand, are the early favourites to meet in the final next weekend. Ainslie helmed the team's back-up boat for the 2007 campaign and arguably nobody knows the old America's Cup warhorses NZL84 and NZL92 better than these two men.

But after a week of tight racing in the Omega regatta, Barker is refusing to write off any of his other opposition.

"'The standard of races here in the MRXs has been really hard-fought and pretty much any team could win every race," he said. "The complexities change as you get in the bigger boats with 17 guys as opposed to six here, so being able to pull all that crew work together is quite a big factor that goes into performing well."

All eight teams are scheduled to be out on the water today for a final shakedown before the opening round-robin matches tomorrow.