America's Cup - Japanese announce line-up for Portsmouth ACWS

by Sail-World.com NZL on 5 Jul 2015 SoftBank Team Japan has selected its crew for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth later this month.

Skipper Dean Barker and wing-trimmer/tactician Chris Draper will be joined by Jeremy “Jero” Lomas, grinder Derek Saward and with Japan's bowman Kazuhiko “Fuku” Sofuku at the first event of the new America’s Cup cycle.

Barker, Lomas and Saward sailed for Emirates Team New Zealand in the last America's Cup. Draper was helmsman for Italy's Luna Rossa. Sofuku is general manager of the fledgling team.

“We are very pleased to have put together such a strong team, not only for this event but more importantly for the long term. Jero and Derek have incredible sailing skills and experience. They are extremely multitalented individuals on the water and shoreside. We’re trying to echo this ethos throughout the team with all of the people we recruit,” said Draper, who is also the Sailing Director for the team.

“We are going to be training together in Portsmouth from July 13. We’ll have eight or nine days of sailing together, which is nothing like what some of our competition has done, but I think we’ll gel quickly and be ready to compete at a high level.”

With the team having limited opportunity to train together, Draper and Fuku recently competed in the Exteme Sailing Series in Cardiff on 40-foot catamarans.

“We both got a bit of a baptism there. Fuku is a very skilled bowman so he wanted a chance to transfer his skills across to catamarans. Day one we had something like 10 races, so we built up a lot of experience in a hurry!”

The team has also added Tyson Lamond and Adrian Gray to its shore team.

“Tyson and Adrian will be a great boost to our team ” Draper said. “We’re grateful that Oracle Team USA will provide a few other shore crew for us in Portsmouth as we continue to build out our team.

“All of us have been very busy making plans for moving the team to Bermuda later this year and setting up our base, ready to be fully operational by the end of the year. And we have a training camp in Japan planned in early October to identify top young Japanese sailors who could help and be a part of the team.

“The people coming on board with us are extremely talented individuals, at the top of their game. We are not here to make up the numbers and everyone that is joining the team has the same belief. SoftBank Team Japan is an incredible opportunity to have a new start and to push extremely hard for success', Draper added.