Yachting: Team NZ pair off to flyer in cup regatta

SPLIT - Team New Zealand's two skippers, Dean Barker and Bertrand Pace, share the top of the leaderboard at the end of the first day of the ACI Cup, Croatia's international match racing event.

They are the only undefeated skippers after a day when sailing was curtailed by a fading breeze.

Barker and his crew chalked up victories over Britain's Andy Green and Yasutaka Funazawa, of Japan, while Pace scored against Polish skipper Karol Jablonski and also the Japanese.

Barker, who won this event last year, was convincing in both his races.

He left the Japanese in his wake on the starting line, while against Green he sailed smarter and faster than the Briton, taking the gun by nearly one-and-a- half minutes.

Pace was also in good form, inflicting a punishing defeat on Funazawa, then getting the better of Jablonski in a closer tussle.

Barker conceded it was still early in the regatta, and he is under no illusion about how hard it is going to be to defend the trophy.

"There are some very good sailors here," he said. "It's not going to be easy, so we will do what we can and take the regatta one day at a time."

The two Team New Zealand crews had a tough time getting to Croatia, with badly connecting flights making it a 60-hour journey from Auckland to Split.

Sailing with Barker are Hamish Pepper, Chris Ward, James Dagg and Tony Rae, the same team who helped him to victory last year, while Pace has Peter Evans, Chris Salthouse, Grant Loretz and Jared Henderson on board.

Seven other America's Cup teams are represented at the regatta, giving a hint at its quality.

Green is from England's GBR Challenge and has an experienced crew with him and Magnus Holmberg, of Sweden, is from that country's Victory challenge.

Australian skipper James Spithill, who led Young Australia in the last cup, is now with Seattle's OneWorld Challenge, and Chris Dickson is representing the other West Coast American challenge, Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing Team.

Prada, like Team New Zealand, have two skippers in Croatia, Gavin Brady and Rod Davis, while Italian Paolo Cian, who represents the little-known other challenge from his homeland, Mascalzone Latino, is also lining up.

The 15 skippers are divided into two groups - one of eight and one of seven - with both Barker and Pace in group A.

Four skippers from each group progress to the quarter-finals.

Only the group A skippers were able to sail yesterday.

Like Barker and Pace, Green and Davis each have two wins, but both have also suffered a loss, while Barker and Pace each have a race in hand.