Dean Barker and the man he replaced as Team New Zealand skipper, Russell Coutts, were to square off in the Swedish Match Cup final at Marstrand, Sweden, early today.
Barker dispatched American Ed Baird and his Team Musto 3-0 in yesterday's semifinals.
Coutts had a tougher time advancing to defend his cup
title as Team New Zealand's Bertrand Pace pushed him to five matches in their first-to-three-wins semifinal.
"It was a good day. Everything went our way," Barker said.
"We hope we can sail that well or better tomorrow because you know you're not going to have an easy race with Russell. He is the yardstick when it comes to match racing."
Coutts, of the Alinghi Team, and the only man to win an Olympic gold medal (1984 in Finns) and skipper an America's Cup (1995 and 2000) winner, opened his semifinal by beating Pace in flight 1, only to watch the Team New Zealand helmsman battle back to win the second and third matches.
In the fourth match Pace had a slight advantage at the start but Coutts sniffed out more pressure from the left side of the course and won by 17s.
In the fifth and deciding race, Coutts pushed Pace over the line 2s early, forcing Pace to double back.
- NZPA
