I have a feeling that's a "where's there's smoke, there's fire" kinda thing.

I half expect the next story will be "Barker joins Oracle"

Maybe it's a rumor planted by one of the other teams to mess with the Kiwi's heads.

Oracle Team USA and Artemis Racing hook up - Video

Parties given until today to file on AC45 arrest claim

"Spooner is attempting to obtain an arrest warrant for the team's development AC45, which is due to be shipped to Bermuda on March 9 for further training and development at the venue of the 35th America's Cup."

That escalated quickly...

Dean Barker calls in lawyers as sailing scrap worsens.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11405837

Some video . . .
Oracle Team USA goes out past the Golden Gate + Video

Oracle Team USA report on their new foiler

Update:
Spooner fails in attempt to have Oracle AC45 arrested

Wow. Burling to take the helm.
Barker offered non-sailing role by Emirates team NZ

NZ cuts their budget

"Those moves have in turn led to cuts in the sailing crew, the most visible of which is the non-appointment of Dean Barker as skipper. In a statement issued by the team, the role of Skipper appears to have been abolished, and helming duties will be shared between wingsail trimmer, Glenn Ashby and 49er World Champion Peter Burling.

'The way it will work at this point is that Peter will sail the one design AC45 in the ACWS events. With his 49er regattas, by definition that means that he is not available somewhere else, and Glenn will drive the surrogate AC45. The original idea was that we would have two surrogates, and Dean would drive one and Glenn would drive the other. When we had to drop a surrogate, we had to make some other decisions.

'We hope and believe that Peter Burling will be able to move up to deal with the crew and the input and everything else that goes with sailing a big boat. In the meantime we are bringing Glenn along, who can already do all of that, as well.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7G5VDJzTGI
This fan caught like a mini race of the scaled down 62s on SF bay with his panasonic camera.
It's fantastic to get this video from a private source. His youtube channel has good stuff.
ps. what are the pros and cons of starting a new thread for ac35?

Not needed as this IS the single source location for all things AC35, and I have been posting AC35 related for over a year.

John Novas, Richard Gladwell, etc. have their content linked here regularly.

Thanks for the link.

Plus it would be nice to have the thread with the most activity a sailing one if you know what I mean.

Ticket information for ACWS Portsmouth UK

Occulus Rift meets AC35

"Without cutting edge design and engineering, no one wins the America's Cup. In pursuit of their goal, the British team has developed their own sophisticated 3D sailing simulator, modelled on those used by the world of motorsport. The virtual flying machine will support the vital link between sailors and designers, creating an important feedback mechanism between the two core parts of the performance team. It also provides an equally important feedback loop within the design team's optimisation process. The man leading the team behind BAR’s (virtual) flying machine is Dr. James Roche, formerly of McLaren Applied Technologies, where he had worked on the design of the skeleton sled that Lizzy Yarnold used to slide to gold at the Sochi Winter Olympics."

Oracle Team USA's boat arrested by US Marshalls

"The vessel was in three containers and the US Marshals went into the Oracle Compound at Pier 80 at 9.00 am this morning and big MAC trucks were arriving to pick up containers. US Marshall Christian Hanson had called Oracle's lawyer at 8.20 am from the Federal Building in San Francisco and told him that no containers with the vessel were to leave Pier 80 otherwise Oracle would be in contempt of the court's order.

However as US Marshall Christian Hanson and his Deputy approached Pier 80 two containers were being removed by truck from Pier 80 at some speed. The truck licence numbers and the container numbers were all noted and a local contractor had taken a photo of the first truck and the numbers on the side of the shipping container."

Dean Barker quits ETNZ after 20 years. (Any guess who picks him up?)

Emirates Team NZ confirm Dean Barker offer rejection

'We are disappointed that we have lost Dean from the team and hold him in the highest regard, but he has made it clear throughout this restructure process that he saw he was best suited to a role on the water as Skipper or sailing director. Despite the media commentary in the last few weeks, all matters between us have been resolved satisfactorily'.

This is beyond ridiculous.