KEY POINTS:
He may have failed to make the semifinals of the Auckland Match Racing Cup, but James Spithill heads home to Australia having posted two wins over America's Cup rival Dean Barker.
Going into the final six round-robin races yesterday, Spithill was one of five skippers vying for four
semifinal spots.
However, on a day when the Luna Rossa helmsman needed a bit of luck to go his way, it didn't.
Spithill ended the day with two wins and four losses.
"There are no excuses - we made more mistakes than the other guys and they sailed better," Spithill said.
"It's frustrating. We would have liked to have got a good result and certainly been in the semis to have a chance of winning."
Spithill's wins yesterday came against Japan's Takumi Nakamura and Barker, the Emirates Team New Zealand skipper. He also beat Barker in round one.
"Beating him twice was good but our goal wasn't just to come here and beat him, our goal was to try and win the regatta," Spithill said.
"Funnily enough we feel comfortable against them and not so comfortable against some of the other guys who probably aren't so experienced.
"Maybe Dean just had a bad race against us; otherwise he is sailing pretty well."
Barker ended the round robin in a three-way tie with Britain's Ian Williams and Frenchman Mathieu Richard. The trio ended with 13 wins and six losses.
Barker took the top spot when the tie was broken and now gets to decide who he will race in today's semifinal, which is a best-of-five series.
Auckland's Adam Minoprio claimed the final semifinal spot with 10 wins and eight losses.
Barker said Williams, Richard and Minoprio were all tough competitors.
"Richard and Williams do the most on the [world] circuit. They are pretty much fulltime, they are consistent good teams. If you make any mistakes they will punish you.
"Adam has had his crew together for a long time, he knows the boats inside out, he owns one of them, he always sails well."
In his six races yesterday Barker notched up four wins and two losses. His losses were against Russian Eugeny Neugodnikov and Spithill.
The final will take place tomorrow.
Match Racing Championships
Waitemata Harbour
Semifinalists
1 Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand
2 Ian Williams, Britain
3 Mathieu Richard, France
4 Adam Minoprio, New Zealand