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Country: New Zealand Base: Auckland Head: Ross Blackman Skipper: Dean Barker Budget: US$40m Team size: 94 Sail no: NLZ 81, NZL 82 Club: New Zealand Yacht Squadron, New Zealand Hull colour: Black Spinnaker colour: White

In the months after Team New Zealand's historic successful defence in 2000, Sir Peter Blake and key members of his management team stepped aside. This cleared the way for design coordinator Tom Schnackenberg, skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth to establish the framework for a new look syndicate. Then, New Zealand's sailing community experienced one of the worst days it has ever known. Coutts and Butterworth departed to take up positions with the Swiss-based Alinghi Team syndicate. In the vacuum that followed a number of other team members accepted offers of work with foreign syndicates before Schnackenberg and the new directors were able to steady the ship, securing seed money from the Government to allow the team to begin rebuilding. The sponsors returned to the fold, and German software giant SAP joined the family.

Under new CEO Ross Blackman, new skipper Dean Barker and Schnackenberg, the team was able to fill the gaps with new blood of outstanding talent and experience. The New Zealanders are the only non-American team to successfully defend the America's Cup. The only other country to win it from the Americans was Australia, and they lost it the following time.

Team New Zealand have a different design to the other boats - they have a false bottom on the boat, which was kept secret for two years, and given the code name Hula. The design team hope that it will make the boat faster than the others in the competition.

Dean Barker is only 29, but he is becoming well known for his sailing expertise since taking over the helm for Team New Zealand in the fifth and final race to beat Prada Challenge and successfully defend the America's Cup. He has quickly risen to the heights of world's best on the match racing scene with two wins on Swedish Match Tour Year One's circuit, and one win on Swedish Match Tour Year Two, with repeat 1st place finishes at the ACI Cup in Croatia. Barker has won the New Zealand match racing championship three times and runner-up twice. For Barker, what started as a hobby became a sport, and from that, a full-time career. Dean was considering giving up sailing altogether before the Olympics in 1996 when he missed the Games because he fell ill. Fortunately, Russell Coutts invited Dean to join Team New Zealand after the Olympics were over. It is quickly becoming apparent that he has not only the skill, but also the charisma to lead Team New Zealand to the 2003 defense of the America 's Cup..