Louis Vuitton Cup- Dean Barker's Blog - The Cup is ours

Dean Barker and the Louis Vuitton Cup ACEA - Photo Gilles Martin-Raget http://photo.americascup.com/

Dean Barker is interviewed by Italian TV after winning the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup © SW

I am sitting here feeling incredibly proud of what ETNZ has achieved. It seems a long six years since we won the last Louis Vuitton Cup, and how things have changed. It would be fair to say in 2007 I certainly did not think I would be foiling around SF Bay on 72' cats at well over 40 knots!

Yesterday we managed to win our seventh race in the best of thirteen format and win the LV Final 7-1. It is a stepping stone for the Teams ultimate goal of winning the Americas Cup. To think how much time and effort has gone in to get us to this point and to win the LV Trophy gives the Team a lot of pride in where it has come from. However in 12 days time it all starts again.

Having fallen short in 2007, I am more motivated than ever to go one better here. In saying that we have absolutely no idea how competitive we will be relative to Oracle. For all we know they could be a lot quicker, and likewise so could we. However from what we have seen it would appear there is not a lot separating the two teams.

Time will tell.

We are having three days now to recharge before our final push. The shore crew are going through a series of mods to the boat and giving all the systems are birthday before we get out on the water to try and extract a bit more performance. Every last bit of speed could be the difference and we will continue to push hard until the end.

It felt we had made some good gains going into the LV final, and continued to do so during the racing. However there are still plenty of gains on the table and we have to continually improve.

Looking forward to the final push

All for now

Dean

To see more of Dean Barker's blogs go to www.kiwiyachting.co.nz