Kiwi Dean Barker is still in the America's Cup race with American Magic confirming the Kiwi will helm their 2021 challenge in Auckland.

The New York Yacht Club has named Dean Barker as helmsman for the 2021 America's Cup in Auckland, and hired three more Kiwis for their sailing team.

American Magic sailing boss Terry Hutchinson said New Zealanders Joe Spooner, Jim Turner, and Sean Clarkson along with Andrew Campbell (USA), Bora Gulari (USA), Cooper Dressler (USA), Paul Goodison (GBR) and Ian Moore (GBR) would join him and Barker in the sailing crew.

They are about to start a campaign in the TP52 Super Series in Europe after winning the Ficker Cup and finishing runner-up in the Congresisonal Cup in California.

Clive Mason Jim Turner, left, sailed with Hamish Pepper to place fifth for New Zealand in the Star class at the 2012 London Olympics.

Barker's efforts at Long Beach have been enough to convince the American syndicate that he is the right man to be on the wheel in their bid to win back the Auld Mug in 2021.

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"Dean's been hired to be a helmsman of the America's Cup team. We just had a great run at the Congressional Cup and the Ficker Cup, and we'll continue our racing development in the TP52," Hutchinson told sailing website Scuttlebutt.

"There's certain people that I've raced with, that regardless of the situation, I have a heap of respect for even though they're competitors. Dean is one of them.

"When we look at the opportunity that's in front of us, and the experience that's required to get one of these boats around the race course, there's not many people in the world that have Dean's level of experience.

"For the role as one of the helmsmen for the team, that person needs to have big boats experience, they need to have foiling experience, and they need to have event experience. There's maybe four people in the world that tick all three of those boxes."

Since the last America's Cup in Bermuda, Barker shifted his family to Park City in Utah. Hutchinson said Barker would soon move to the NYYC's base at Rhode Island. Under the latest America's Cup protocol non-nationals must reside for 380 days in the country of their team between September 1st of this year through August 31st of 2020.

Given the syndicate is dedicated to trying to improve American sailing talent, Hutchinson accepted there would be criticism of having a foreigner at the wheel but he could live with that.

"To have a long-term impact on the USA we have to first win the America's Cup. We have to put ourselves in a position to be successful. The primary, overriding goal is to win the regatta," he told Scuttlebutt.

"Back in October, we said we'd be a multi-national team. We live in an environment that people are going to criticise, which I guess is their right.

"But at the same time we have to be smart and respectful of the opportunity that's in front of us, of what our supporters are backing us to do, and compete in the manner that's going to make New York Yacht Club proud, that's going to make our sailing community proud, and that will allow us to be good representatives of our country."

Hutchinson felt the syndicate was in a race against time as well as major opposition and therefore needed to assemble as powerful a team as possible.

"All of our decisions leading up to the start of the American Magic team is, we have to circumvent the time component because all of the notable competitors have that advantage. Team New Zealand's an established team. Ben Ainslie is coming back. Luna Rossa, while not an established sailing team, they've been operating in some capacity, and they have the advantage of helping write the rule

"So we have to circumvent time. We can't afford to waste time developing. You want to always have a good plan B, but at the same time you want to know that plan A can step right into it and not be concerned."

Barker was a long-terms skipper of Team New Zealand who lost his role in the wake of the 2013 defeat to Oracle Team USA in San Francisco. He was replaced by Peter Burling on the wheel of the successful Kiwi challenge last year with Barker sailing for Team Japan.

Barker's presence will certainly spice up the 2021 challenger series as he looks to win that and take oin his old team on his old home waters on the Waitemata Harbour.

He won't be lacking Kiwi company in his new colours.

Spooner was part of Team New Zealand's unsuccessful Cup defence in 2003 but then joined Oracle Team USA where he helped win the 2010 and 2013 editions.

Former New Zealand Olympian Clarkson has sailed in the America's Cup for AmericaOne, Prada, Oracle and Artemis Racing.

Turner is another Kiwi Olympic sailor who has America's Cup experience with Great Britain and French-German syndicates.

England sailor Goodison is a significant signing for American Magic. He won the Laser gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and is a former world champion in the dynamic Moth class that ahs been at the forefront of the foiling revolution. He sailed with Sweden's Artemis Racing at the last America's Cup in Bermuda.