By SUZANNE McFADDEN
Dean Barker and his Team New Zealand crew are putting their reputations on the line by touring the country to race against weekend sailors.
Hitching their little black boat to the towbar of a four-wheel-drive, the sailors will hit the road next month in search of some opposition
at yacht clubs throughout New Zealand.
"My job might be in jeopardy if we don't win a few races," chuckled Barker, Team NZ's skipper.
The America's Cup defenders have bought a fleet of four Etchell keelboats - a third of the size of cup winner NZL60 - for their campaign.
Two have been painted black, and dressed in the Team NZ livery; the other two are white.
A three-man Team NZ crew will sail one black boat against local yachties, who will be using the other three yachts. The first of the one-day fleet regattas will be at Tauranga on September 16.
At the end of the tour, the Team NZ sailors will choose the best crew to spend a day with them on the Hauraki Gulf.
"We've been looking at ways of involving the rest of the country in what we do," Barker said.
"We figured we needed to take the team to New Zealand, but we're certainly not mobile with the black [cup] boats.
"I'm really looking forward to it - we're going to be racing in some pretty hardcase places."
The tour will fit in around Team NZ's summer buildup. They will take their fleet to Rotorua, Taupo, the Bay of Islands and Whangarei next month, then restart the tour early next year, venturing as far as Bluff.
Barker hopes the visits will rekindle support for Team New Zealand, after last year's defections.
"Certainly a lot of people have said they have lost faith in Team New Zealand, and they've been betrayed," he said.
"But they haven't been betrayed by us. We're still here and for all the right reasons."
Next week, most of the Team NZ crew will be in England for the 150th jubilee of the first America's Cup race at Cowes.
