The old campaigner - pt2

Grant Dalton talks to James Boyd about the futures of the Volvo Ocean Race and himself

Dalts with wife Niki and new daughter Olivia

Once the Volvo Ocean Race is over in June, he says he will be taking a break from sailing for the rest of year. "This year I'm doing nothing expect planning for the future. At the end of this year I'm training for the New Zealand Ironman (a triathalon, except 10x the distance) in February next year which is a full time commitment. This will clear my head and give me time out. I've had a big 3-4 years now. And I want to watch the Cup and I want to be normal for a bit, do house alterations, etc. I need a bit of time. I haven't been in one place for a few years and I've got three children, so it's ridiculous". He says after the Ironman he wants to do another three years of sailing before he gets too old.

He says he will not race again in the Volvo Ocean Race, but he would run a team. Other than that there is a interesting new project he currently has on the back burner. "I'm still really keen on doing this speed record. I want to break the Yellow Pages' record".

At present this project has " a bit of meat around it" but he has yet to find proper funding for it. "It's not really a boat. It's more an aircraft that is attached to the water. The concept of Yellow Pages is sound, but I know very little about it. It's mainly in my head at the moment. We did some work a while back with Bruce Farr and Richard Kahn to come up with concepts and looking at the feasibility of it of how much it would cost and how fast you could go. We've got it down to a basic design, now we've got to find the rest of the money. It's small. Big is not right. It's not Hydroptere. I'd sail it, but it would be more than one person on it".

One suspects that the boat he would most readily jump into come 2003 would be a maxi-cat, although he is critical of the next running of The Race. "The timing of The Race doesn't work. To be in The Race you have to start building in June and there is no way that I'm starting to build a multihull in June. And no one will. I know why Bruno's putting it there - it's because of the Vendee, but just delay it a year and start it after the Vendee. But you know he can change on a whim anyway. He's got the event of the future so don't *** it. Make it a year later and me, Shoebe we'll all do it."

We will have to wait and see what will happen, but our guess would be that come the new year the proposals will be going out to build a new big multihull to undertake what will be, incredibly the great man's eighth circumnavigation.

How could any self respecting testosterone-filled racing yachtsman resist this?