Team NZ: Dean Barker finds role with Russians

Dean Barker.

Team New Zealand may not want him as a sailor but Dean Barker has found others are keen to have him.

Barker has signed up as tactician for a Russian team in the 2015 RC44 Championship Tour, which starts in Malta at the end of the month.

The RC44 is a class he has raced in before - he was heavily involved in 2009 during a lull between America's Cups - and it is a series many top America's Cup sailors feature in.

The one-design monohull class is the brainchild of Sir Russell Coutts and will also feature the likes of Tom Slingsby, Terry Hutchinson, Iain Percy, Ed Baird, Nathan Outteridge, Cameron Appleton and Francesco de Angelis.

Successful businessmen race alongside some of the world's best sailors, who are usually well paid.

The tour is made up of two elements - one-day match racing when the professional skippers or owner-drivers helm the boat and the four days of owner-helmed fleet racing.

Swedish America's Cup syndicate Artemis have entered two boats, seeing it as good preparation for cup sailing, and there are five syndicates from Russia among the 13 teams.

Barker was recently dumped as Team New Zealand helmsman for their 2017 America's Cup campaign in Bermuda, with Peter Burling and Glenn Ashby taking over.

He was offered a job by Team NZ as sailing coach and performance manager but indicated he had little interest in the position and felt he was best used as a sailor.

- Staff reporter