Photo: Dean Barker FB page - Sept. 26, 2013 during the 34th America's Cup in SF

Leaked by stuff.com 4/23/15, Dean Barker, former Team New Zealand skipper, has joined up with the new Japanese America’s Cup syndicate. Rumor has it that Russell Coutts, America’s Cup Event Authority director, and his boss Oracle’s Larry Ellison will attend the signing of Japan’s entry for the 2017 America’s Cup challenge. According to stuff.com, the Japanese entry is funded by the wealthiest man in Japan –Softbank’s founder & CEO Masoyashi Son and is backed by the Kansai Yacht Club.

True to the majority of team entrants’ projections about cutting costs with the new America’s Cup Class and keeping the Qualifiers in the same venue as the 2017 America’s Cup, more teams are entering the 2017 challenge. Read the whole story here.

Related story re. Japanese entry after 17 years.

Photo: Dean Barker FB page – Sept. 26, 2013 during the 34th America’s Cup in SF