Team New Zealand boss Dean Barker and helmsman Bertrand Pace lead the four qualifiers for the Swedish Match Tour's final yachting event, the Swedish Match Cup semifinals.
Barker accumulated the most points among the quarterfinalists, 15, to establish himself as the top qualifier while Pace chalked up 12 to finish second.
"Today's
result was due to excellent teamwork because I wasn't starting very well," Barker said.
"The crew work was fantastic and it got us back into a couple of races that we lost the start on."
Emerging from a four-way log-jam on 10 points to claim the final two spots are defending Swedish Match Cup champion Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Team and American Ed Baird and his Team Musto crew, who each advanced on countback over Peter Holmberg of Oracle Racing and Danish amateur Jesper Radich.
"It was a great, but long day of racing,"
sighed Coutts.
" The standard of match racing has risen incredibly. It was clearly much higher today and as a result some very worthy teams are going home."
Overall leaderboard
1 Dean Barker, Team New Zealand 15
2. Bertand Pace, Team New Zealand 12
3. Russell Coutts, Alinghi Team 10
4. Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto 10
5. Peter Holmberg, Oracle Racing 10
6. Jesper Radich, Denmark 10
7. Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Victory Lane 9
8. Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team SeaLife 8
Quarterfinals round robin 2
Wins Losses Points
1 Dean Barker , Team New Zealand 5 2 10
2 Bertrand Pace, Team New Zealand 5 2 10
3 Russell Coutts, Alinghi Team 4 3 8
4 Peter Holmberg, Oracle Racing 3 4 6
5 Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team SeaLife 3 4 6
6 Jes Gram Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane 3 4 6
7 Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto 2 4 4
8 Jesper Radich, Denmark 3 4 6
- NZPA
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
