My date with Dean Barker

Creating media events out of sailing events will inevitably create media darlings out of the sport’s leading sailors. Gossip queen Rachel Glucina, who apparently reports on the latest parties, fashions and celebrity events around town for the New Zealand Herald, is loving the excitement this week surrounding the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Here is an excerpt from her column titled ‘My date with Dean Barker’ dated Jan. 28th.

This morning I had the fortune of being invited by Mayor John Banks to be a guest at his very private, very exclusive Skippers Breakfast for all the VIPs from the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Grant Dalton was there looking more rugged and weathered than when I last saw him. He's the Keith Richards of the sailing world, though I don't presume Louis Vuitton will be recruiting him for any campaigns to sell manbags in the near future. The effervescent Frenchman Bruno Trouble was there in flamboyant red trousers that only a gay man or a sailing man could get away with - you know, in that preppy-chino-chic way. He looked like a poster boy for Ralph Lauren.

But it was (Emirates Team New Zealand skipper) Dean Barker who stole the show. We were at the same table and I couldn't stop staring at him. He must have wondered what the heck was going through my mind, but I couldn't very well tell him I think he's drop-dead gorgeous. The man has to be our sexiest sports star (next to Richard Kahui). He's painfully shy, which really only adds to his appeal. But he's looking a tad too thin and gaunt at the moment, if you ask me. Mandy (his wife) needs to fatten him up a bit. -- Full story