Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Dean Barker came from behind to win the Omega Auckland Match Racing regatta by beating British Team Origin skipper Ben Ainslie in the final of the event on Saturday.
Ainslie had been the dominant performer through the early stages of the event while Barker battled to make any headway and it appeared he would miss the final four.
Barker's good fortune was when the second round robin was not completed which saw him advance on a countback system.
He admitted as much after the event.
"We scraped into the semi-final on a countback, much to our surprise," he said.
"We had the boat packed up and we were not really expecting to be still racing. For once the tie-breaker worked in our favour."
The reality of the finals proved the incentive his team named and it beat Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch team 2-0 in the semi-final and then turned around to beat Ainslie by the same margin in the final.
Ainslie had been in fine touch through the early stages and made the final with a 2-0 win over Torvar Mirsky.
Ainslie was disappointed with the final outcome.
"But that is the game. Dean Barker sailed really well in the last couple of hours," Ainslie said.
Barker was not unfamiliar with a late rally to win in events of this nature.
"We don't like doing it that way. It is not good for the nerves.
"I couldn't get it right in the beginning of the second round, but we did enough to scrape through.
"Ben Ainslie and his Team Origin crew set the benchmark in the regatta. They sailed consistently well all four days. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. We were lucky it came good for us at the end," he said.
Final placings were:
Dean Barker (New Zealand) 1, Ben Ainslie (Britian) 2, Adam Minoprio (New Zealand) 3, Torvar Mirsky (Australia) 4, Karol Jablonski (Poland) 5, Bertrand Pace (France) 6, Magnus Holmberg (Sweden) 7, Francesco Bruni (Italy) 8, Sebastien Col (France) 9, Chris Dickson (New Zealand) 10.