Author: kiwiyachting

There are few sailors who have experienced the intense highs and lows of America’s Cup racing like Dean Barker. In the space of 13 years, he has steered the final race in a successful defence for New Zealand in 2000, lost the Cup skippering Team New Zealand in 2003, failed to win it back in a close contest with Alinghi in 2007, then held what appeared to be an unbeatable lead in 2013 against Team Oracle USA, before ending-up on the wrong side “of one of sport’s greatest comebacks.” It’s a history that…continue reading →

Today was another tough day. Great conditions with 18-23 kts and plenty of action. The race course in Istanbul was really open and allowed the opportunity for some big gains and losses. Today we knew if we put a solid day together we would have a chance to win the event. Going into the final double points race we were 6 behind The Wave and 12 ahead of Alinghi. We sailed a really strong race and pulled out a win. Knowing The Wave needed to be three boats behind us we were watching…continue reading →

This is my first blog for quite some time.  In fact since September last year when I was still a part of Team NZ racing in Istanbul for the Extreme Sailing Series.  It is fair to say there has been a fiar bit that has happened since then, most of which has been incredibly disappointing. But for the past two weeks I have been back doing what I love and that is racing.  I was very fortunate to join a Russian RC44 team, Team Nika, to compete in the first event of the…continue reading →

I hope everyone had a great Easter break and enjoyed the fantastic weather. We were very fortunate to take delivery of our new Southern Pacific inflatable on Thursday and get the chance to give it a good run over the Easter break.  We have purchased a Comrant 550 which we intend to use primarily for family water sports and the odd bit of bad fishing.  We have put a 90hp Suzuki on it. With the age of the kids it is nice to have a boat which is easily managed with two people,…continue reading →