Dean Barker, skipper for Emirates Team New Zealand, won all five of his races at the Congressional Cup yesterday in Long Beach, including a final light-air runaway against Chris Dickson that allowed him to leapfrog the CEO and skipper for one of his fellow AC challengers – BMW Oracle Racing – two years hence.

Barker is 11-3 after 14 of 18 matches in the double round robin, followed now by Dickson, who is 10-3 but has one makeup race in hand against Russell Coutts, who is third at 9-4. That race, postponed a day earlier when Dickson’s traveller car broke, will be sailed today or Saturday before the semi-final sail-offs. As for that next America’s Cup, Coutts, sailing here with tactician Jes Gram-Hansen’s Danish crew, will be a spectator after playing the key role in the previous three victories over the past decade. But in posting a 4-1 record Thursday he was sailing with the command he showed then and in winning three events on the Swedish Match Tour in the past year.

Barker’s crew at this event includes two Americans: tactician Terry Hutchinson and pitman Moose McClintock, who is sailing his 16th Congressional Cup with his fourth skipper. The others are Kiwis Skip Baxter, main sail trimmer; James Dagg, headsail trimmer, and Jeremy Lomas, bow. All except McClintock are TNZ members. Barker said: “Everything fell our way today. We were lucky to pick the right side most of the day.”

Barker and Dickson are good bets to reach the semi-finals, but the other two positions are up for grabs among Coutts, France’s Mathieu Richard (9-5) and England’s Chris Law and Finland’s Staffan Lindberg, each 8-6.

Results

ROUND 10- Chris Dickson, Golden Gate YC, San Francisco, def. Scott Dickson, Long Beach YC, 1 minute 20 seconds; Dean Barker, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, def. Chris Larson, Annapolis YC, 35 seconds; Chris Law, Royal Cape YC, South Africa, def. Russell Coutts, Aarhus Sejlklub, Denmark, DNF; Staffan Lindberg, Aaland Islands YC, Finland, def. Philippe Presti, Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, France, 35 seconds; Mathieu Richard, APCC-Voile Sportive, France, def. Lars Nordbjerg, Skovshoved Sejlklub, Denmark, 1 minute 10 seconds.

ROUND 11- Larson d. S. Dickson, 0:06; Barker d. Richard, 0:50; Law d. Nordbjerg, DNF; Coutts d. Lindberg, 0:15; C. Dickson d. Presti, 0:45.

ROUND 12- Richard d. C. Dickson, 0:10; Barker d. S. Dickson, 0:17; Presti d. Law, 0:40; Coutts d. Nordbjerg. 0:50; Lindberg d. Larson, 0:24.

ROUND 13- C. Dickson d. Larson, 0:03; S. Dickson d. Richard, 0:06; Nordbjerg d. Lindberg, 0:10; Coutts d. Presti, 0:21; Barker d. Law, 0:50.

ROUND 14- Barker d. C. Dickson, no time; Richard d. Larson, 2:00-plus; Lindberg d. Law, 1:30; Nordbjerg d. Presti, 0:15; Coutts d. S. Dickson, 1:27.

STANDINGS (after 14 of 18 rounds)1. Barker, 11-3; 2. C. Dickson, 10-3*; 3. Coutts*, 9-4; 4. Richard, 9-5; 5. tie between Lindberg and Law, 8-6; 7. Nordbjerg, 6-8; 8. Presti, 4-10; 9. S. Dickson, 3-11; 10. Larson, 1-13.