30 year old Volvo veteran

Ed Gorman talks to Matt Humphries about his fourth time round in this event

"Of course it could be different," he said. "I don't know if we are the narrowest boat...maybe were are, but the boat has been designed for what we think will be best for us around the world and a lot of work has gone into it. We're talking very small differences though," he added.

The campaign seems to be placing a lot emphasis and deriving much of its self-belief from its thorough sail development programme which was managed by sail co-ordinator Tony Mutter, a Kiwi veteran of Swedish Match. "The sail programme has been of huge importance to this project," said Humphries. "That's why we spent six months in Lisbon and then three months in Gothenburg sail testing, up to five days-a-week. We hope we have uncovered as many stones as possible but all I can say is that we are very confident about how far we've come," he added.

For Humphries personally, the ambition is still to lead his own campaign in this race. After leading Dolphin in 1993 when he became the youngest ever skipper in a Whitbread fleet, he then failed to find backers for subsequent projects at that early stage in Britain and became disillusioned with the way he, as a young up-and-coming sailor, was regarded. He felt that the Dolphin project was unjustly dismissed as uncompetitive and naive he now takes enormous pleasure in the fact that four of his teamates from that campaign are sailing in this race.

Having searched in vain in Britain, Humphries has taken his career to Sweden where he now lives and sails full time. He is due to marry his Swedish girlfriend next year and the couple are building a new house outside Stockholm. While he has struggled for success at home, Humphries is highly regarded by Krantz who has become a virtual mentor and he is firmly established in the sailing world in Sweden. The Swedish Match skipper was impressed with the young Briton's ability after he joined the Match campaign in Cape Town in the last race and, this time round, Humphries occupies a senior position on SEB "floating" outside the watch system with Krantz and van Trieste.

Despite his many miles around the planet, Humphries still has the appetite for this gruelling race and no illusions about it either. "I think it's hard of course to stay focussed and competitive all the time but the race is tough, it's not a forgiving race. Having done it three times before, you know what you're in for and it's going to be a tough ride. If I didn't think I would be as competitive as last time, I wouldn't be here - I feel we can be more competitive this time," he said.