Yachting: Barker matched against sailing's young guns

Dean Barker heads the roster of America's Cup skippers challenging for Auckland's US$75,000 match-racing prize next week. Photo / Getty Images

Several top international skippers in town for the Louis Vuitton Trophy will have their first opportunity to flex their muscles in next week's Omega Auckland match-racing regatta.

A mix of America's Cup experience and rising talent will battle in the invitational regatta, which begins on Wednesday on the Waitemata Harbour.

The regatta launches the Auckland Festival of Sailing, which will see a crowded calendar of thrilling yacht-racing through most of March.

The concept was developed by Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton with the help of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Auckland City Council in an effort to expand on the success of last year's Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

"Last year was a huge success, but we wanted to make sure it was even better this year, so we had to pitch higher," said Dalton.

He hopes creating the match-racing regatta as a lead-in to the Louis Vuitton series, in which the big international sailing syndicates face off in Team NZ's Version 5 America's Cup yachts, will spark interest in the festival from the outset.

To do so, organisers needed to assemble a quality line-up of top international skippers and they had an ambitious list in mind. Invitations were sent out to some of the sport's legends, including Dennis Conner and John Bertrand, as well as current America's Cup heroes.

They didn't quite manage to put together their dream fleet - they are still waiting to hear back from Conner - but Dalton is thrilled with the calibre.

Top America's Cup skippers Dean Barker (New Zealand), Ben Ainslie (England), Francesco Bruni (Italy) and Sebastian Col (France) are set to battle two young guns on the world match-racing tour - Adam Minoprio (New Zealand) and Torvar Mirsky (Australia) - so there are some juicy match-ups to contemplate.

"I can't think of a regatta in recent times that has actually brought these names together.

"Basically it's pretty much a who's who of match racing, and that hasn't happened since the Steinlager days," said Dalton.

Although the regatta will serve as a curtainraiser to the Louis Vuitton event later next month, he rejects any suggestion it is a mere exhibition.

"There's US$75,000 on the line and they all want to get their hands on that. So it'll be a full ding-dong battle," he said.

Racing will take place in identical Farr-designed MRX yachts and will incorporate a double round-robin, semifinal and final.