Dean Barker denies he’s signing with Oracle

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World on 9 Aug 2007
Emirates Team New Zealand moved late this afternoon to counter allegations that its skipper, Dean Barker, had been poached by rival BMW Oracle Racing, now headed by Barkers mentor in the 1995-2000 period, Russell Coutts.

A story was posted overnight (NZT) on the highly regarded valenciasailing.com, alluding to the suggestion that NZL-92 skipper, Dean Barker had signed contracts to move to BMW Oracle Racing and join Team New Zealand's 1995-2000 skipper Russell Coutts.

When Sail-World contacted Emirates Team New Zealand this morning, a spokesman said they were unaware of the story and would be most surprised as to its accuracy.

Both skipper Dean Barker and CEO Grant Dalton are apparently away on holiday.

At 1800hrs NZT (0800hrs Valencia Time), Emirates Team New Zealand issued a media statement which read:

Skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand Dean Barker denied today that he had signed or he was intending to sign with BMW Oracle.

A web site, Valencia Sailing, reported today that he had.

Barker said he had not even talked to Oracle. 'Emirates Team New Zealand has moved to retain key members including myself and I have signed a letter of intent.'

Barker said 'I have had approaches from a couple of teams, but I would like to stay with Emirates Team New Zealand, the team that has worked so hard since 2003 to restore some pride in New Zealand sailing and regain the New Zealand public’s confidence.'

Earlier this month it was reported in a US newspaper that Terry Hutchinson had signed a similar Letter of Intent with Emirates Team New Zealand.

The wording of the current Protocol restricts the transfer options for crews who have 'been engaged' with teams prior to the 31st August 2007. It is not known whether a Letter of Intent constitutes engagement, as the terminology would seem to indicate something less than a contract viz: .

'on or following 1 October 2008 (or such later date as may be announced by ACM), no Competitor shall engage a crew member, who was engaged by another Competitor after 31st of August 2007 (whether before or after becoming a Competitor in the 33rd America’s Cup).'

The word 'engaged' was used in the final version of the so-called Coutts clause in the 32nd Protocol after the Alinghi skipper refused to sail with the team in the early Acts and the no-transfer clause only applied to sailors who had 'sailed' with a Team. After the term 'sailed' was changed to the more flexible term 'engaged', Coutts was effectively excluded from the 2007 America's Cup. His signing as CEO and Skipper with the US based BMW Oracle Racing was announced earlier this month.

The Defender Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) has until 19th August to respond to the suit lodged in New York by Golden Gate YC. No further action is expected until after that date, when the parties will enter a Discovery process which is expected to extent back into activities in the 32nd America's Cup.