America’s Cup - SoftBank Team Japan aims high for Gothenburg

by America’s Cup on 26 Aug 2015 SoftBank Team Japan skipper Dean Barker says while the racing in Portsmouth was a good first step, his team is looking to up its game in order to be mixing with the leaders at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Gothenburg this weekend.

“It was a good first crack at it but we’d have liked to have done a bit better,” Barker said. “The training had gone pretty well leading into the event but we made too many mistakes in the races. It was to be expected, given our limited time sailing, but you want to be racing at the front end.”

Sailing team manager and wing trimmer Chris Draper agreed, saying there was a big difference between the training sessions and the two races.

“We had a good reality check in Portsmouth,” he said. “We’d been going very well in the training and had been quite confident, but although we had good starts, we made some poor decisions and struggled with our boat-handling, so that has to be our focus heading into Sweden.”

Both Barker and Draper said the limitation on training in the one-design AC45F boats is a challenge for a new team like SoftBank Team Japan and Barker says the change to foiling for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series adds another twist.

“In certain conditions the boats are very similar to sail as last time (when they didn’t foil). But when you’re foiling the timing of who does what on board is much different. So it takes time to develop the skills there.

'We can’t expect to be out there leading the way after just a few days on the boat. The foiling adds another element of crew work and boat handling we need to learn.'

For Barker, the Portsmouth event marked his first race with SoftBank Team Japan since he left Emirates Team New Zealand after more than 15 years with the only America's Cup team he had ever called home. Somewhat surprisingly, he says it didn’t feel strange to line up against the Kiwis last month.

“I thought it might feel different but to be honest I’m very excited and focused on the team we have here. We have our own challenges to work on as a new team,” he said. “And that can be exciting and it can be frustrating at times. But you don’t have a lot of time to be out there thinking, ‘There’s the Team New Zealand guys’.

“It’s almost a case where you're racing yourself a lot of the time as you keep working on improvements within the team. If you have time to think about the other guys, you’re probably in pretty good shape. We’re not there yet!”

Both Barker and Draper, along with Kazuhiko “Fuku” Sofuku, have now moved to Bermuda with their families, ready to set up the SoftBank Team Japan training base for the next two years.

The team will be training on its AC45F boat following the Bermuda event and then sailing a new training boat at the beginning of the new year. In the meantime, there is the base to build and a team to put together.

“After the Bermuda event is finished in mid-October, we’ll have some access to the AC45F where we’ll be able to practice out on the Great Sound, which will be fantastic,” Barker says. “We’ll be operating out of Dockyard and building our base. We’ll then start sailing our new test boat in January. We’ll have about 30-35 people here in Bermuda - and their families - full time by the middle of January.”

“It’s really nice to come here to Bermuda and feel like we’ve settled down for at least a couple of years,” Draper added. “The people have been insanely friendly. I think it’s going to be an incredible place to sail. I’ve checked out the race area and I don’t think you could get more of a ‘racer’s venue’ anywhere in the world. It just looks awesome.”