America's Cup - Dean Barker pleased with Softbank Team Japan progress

by Softbank Team Japan on 3 May 2017 Another week begins following the conclusion of another practice race period last week in Bermuda with SoftBank Team Japan continuing to making gains amongst the perceived leaders despite mixed results.

Despite going 4-7 for the week, the team saw race wins against all rivals on the course including a dominant Friday session to wrap up the week going 1-1 with Oracle Team USA and beating Emirates Team New Zealand.

In addition, improved performances of several new pieces of hardware installed later in the week confirmed several development decisions including the first test flight of new daggerboards.

Skipper and CEO Dean Barker wrapped up the week encouraged at the rate at which the team is developing despite the increasing pressure mounting as racing only 25 days away.

'The practice racing last week was incredibly valuable for the team. Racing periods like that put everyone under pressure and gives you the opportunity to go through all the small checks to make sure there’s nothing missing come race day.

'We’re really happy with how we’re going - at this point there’s nothing in it amongst the top teams. Good wins for us against all our competitors this week and really happy with some new modifications to the boat. There’s still plenty of new pieces the boat builders are fabricating and installing and we're taking delivery of several new items over the coming weeks - no one will know the hand each team holds until May 26th.

'The attitude of the team is what’s been impressive to me, you can see everyone here is digging in at the moment and working overtime knowing that it will only get harder with less time and more things to do. That attitude is what's going to help us be successful on the start line in a few weeks time.'