Yachting: Patient Barker clinches cup win

Patience, as much as good sailing, was rewarded when Dean Barker and his Team New Zealand crew won the ACI Cup, Croatia's international match-racing event, yesterday.

They beat Prada's Gavin Brady 2-1 in the final.

"It was a hard, hard day," Barker said when he stepped ashore.

"It was just one of those ones where it's a bit of a lottery, and it could easily have gone the other way.

"We just got the right side in the last race, and that was the difference."

Barker and his team were as consistent as ever, reducing mistakes to a minimum, and always getting the best out of the boats, with Hamish Pepper's ability to sniff out the breeze put to good use.

Barker and his crew had been handed a place in the final when lack of wind prevented the completion of the semifinals in the morning, and their 2-0 lead over Magnus Holmberg, of Sweden's Victory Challenge, was enough to take them through.

Brady also converted a 2-0 lead over Bertrand Pace in the scheduled first-to-win-three-races semifinals.

The finals were also scheduled to be first-to-win-three, but time-wasting by the race committee, which was a feature of the event, also forced their curtailment.

The Team New Zealand crew of Barker, Pepper, Chris Ward, James Dagg and Tony Rae won the start of the first race and never looked back, forcing Brady over the line early and building on that advantage.

The start of the second race was closer - so close that at the first mark Barker incurred a penalty, which essentially handed the race to Brady, levelling the score.

A tactical error by Brady and his crew 30s before the start of race three saw Team New Zealand grab an advantage they did not relinquish.

With wind and time running out, this was enough for Barker to collect the ACI Cup for the second year in succession.

Comparing this year's victory with last year's, Barker said: "Certainly the racing doesn't get any easier, that's for sure.

"The standard here is very high.

"This is the third regatta in a row that Gavin's had a second place, so he's a pretty good guy to gauge your form against.

"We're obviously a lot happier here than we were at the Steinlager Line 7 Cup, and it's nice to win one again. It's been a while since we won one."

From Croatia, both Team New Zealand crews head back to Auckland, where they will be training for most of this month before returning to Europe for July and August racing.

In the sail-off for third place, Magnus Holmberg beat the other Team New Zealand crew, skippered by Bertrand Pace.

That placing clinched the Swedish Match Tour championship for Holmberg with two events remaining.