"You learn so much more from a bad loss than a good win. I've had two real-life lessons, each slightly different but with the same outcome. I imagine I'll always look back and recognise them as the best things that could have happened, even if they were painful at the time. I never want to endure that again, but if it wasn't for those defeats, I wouldn't be working as hard as I am now", expressed Dean Barker in February 2003, before the collapse of Team New Zealand's NZL 82 under the assault of Alinghi SUI 64.

In this context, one wonders what Barker's level of determination is to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and claim back the America's Cup in Valencia in 2007 with Emirates Team New Zealand.

Barker grew up by the water in Auckland. He was 10 years old when his father Ray taught him to sail an Optimist dinghy on Lake Pupuke.

He has competed at regattas in many types of dinghies; four years in the P-class, then the Laser - in which he was a world youth champion - in the 470 and finally the Finn.

In 1995, Barker was contacted by Russell Coutts and asked to sail with Team New Zealand in San Diego, but after five months of training he went back to sail his Finn dinghy aiming towards the 1996 Olympic Games, narrowly missing selection.

He then thought of abandoning sailing altogether, but Coutts called him back and suggested joining his team on the world match racing circuit as the mainsail trimmer. For Barker, this kind of sailing was a revelation and he steadily became the one of the best in the world.

He was then entrusted, in 1999, with the helm of Team New Zealand's NZL-57 as Russell Coutts' sparring partner as part of the preparation for the 2000 America's Cup defence.

This led the New Zealand camp to such a level of excellence that the Italians on Luna Rossa ITA-45, skippered by Francesco De Angelis, were unable to snatch even one race from the defenders.

By the fifth and final race of the 2000 series, a confident Russell Coutts handed the wheel of the defender to Barker, who won in magnificent style.

In 2003, the America's Cup defence fell to Barker, who not only became the skipper, but also one of Team New Zealand's senior managers.

But the departure of many key figures from the team, which had won in San Diego in 1995 then in Auckland in 2000, was fatal.

Team New Zealand's NZL-82 was no match for Alinghi's SUI-64, skippered by Russell Coutts. The defence was a failure - a lesson Barker is not ready to forget.

J.T.

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