Enemies on high seas now mates
Just how personal this current campaign gets remains to be seen. But Barker believes Oracle’s help will make his rookie outfit competitive.
‘‘For our team it’s great because we know the design package we will get is going to be good enough to go out and win.’’
And that remains Barker’s goal and he feels Team Japan has the ability to surprise.
‘‘We are going out to win, it’s nothing more complex than that.’’
He said he was motivated by his new challenge as he continues in an America’s Cup game that has occupied more than half his life.
‘‘The ability to bring together a group of people with the same objective ... it actually motivates you more when you are outside your comfort zone, I think it makes you take a step back and realise what were the ingredients you relied on in the past to be successful. That part is going to be the interesting part.’’
Barker said leaving Team New Zealand wasn’t a difficult decision after he had been removed from skipper responsibilities for the next campaign.
‘‘In the end, it wasn’t hard at all. I’d made my decision. I didn’t enjoy what was going on there. So in the end it wasn’t hard at all.’’
Looking back at the last challenge, he still remembers it fondly despite the heartbreak of surrendering that huge lead.
‘‘You get caught up in the moment, taking it race by race, you don’t really look at the bigger picture,’’ Barker said of a final that had so many twists and turns and so many near-misses for the Kiwis as they looked to claim match point.
‘‘By the time we got to 8-1 we could see they were making some pretty remarkable improvements. Once they got to that point they were pretty much unstoppable.
‘‘But we still thought we could win the thing.’’
He said it remained his ‘‘most enjoyable America’s Cup experience’’ though he was still driven to lift the trophy again, as he had done in 2000 when he and Russell Coutts shared the helming duties in the successful Team New Zealand defence.
‘‘It is the ultimate goal in sailing to lift the America’s Cup up. I’m incredibly motivated to do that again.’’