Dean Barker will bring to the Japanese team his 15 years of expertise on the America's Cup . He has also sailed in four America's Cup races. " This is an incredible opportunity to build a new team from the ground up." barker explained from Bermuda, where he and team general manager Kazuhiko Sofuku, known as "Fuku," met with America's Cup officials. " It is an honor to take on the responsibility of both skipper and manager of SoftBank Team Japan. We are in the process of distributing the key roles of the team as quickly as we can. I think we are putting together a very strong team. We want to compete at the front of the fleet and we are putting together a team that can do that. Our goal is to win the America's Cup."
SoftBank Team Japan was confirmed as a challenger earlier this month. The team has a lot to do before racing in the first America's Cup World Series event in July in Portsmouth.
"In the short term, our job is to be ready to race in Portsmouth", fuku said. " After that, we will focus on testing the Japanese sailors to continue building and developing our team."
Former Team New Zealand skipper to lead Japanese team
As a reminder, Dean Barker was replaced at the head of the New Zealand team at the end of February by Peter Burling, Olympic medalist, as skipper and by Glenn Ashby as sporting director. The disgraced Kiwi having learned the news through the media and disgusted by the behavior of Grant Dalton had decided to leave Team New Zealand. He is now taking his revenge by taking the helm of the Japanese team.
Dean Barker and the America's Cup
- 1995 âeuros Training with Team New Zealand
- 2000 âeuros Winner of the America's Cup with Team New Zealand as helmsman
- 2003 âeuros Skipper âeuros America's Cup Finalist
- 2007 âeuros Skipper winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup and finalist in the America's Cup
- 2013 âeuros Skipper winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup and finalist in the America's Cup
