Dalts on form

Ed Gorman gets the adults-only view on the Volvo Ocean Race from the top Kiwi

Most of his rivals don't buy any of this. His old enemy Ross Field said he does not believe a word Dalton says but also claimed that Amer Sports One is slow in every condition, full stop. In Field's considered opinion, the performance of Amer Sports One to date is down to one thing and one thing only: the presence on the boat of Dee Smith.

On this, at least he and Dalts can agree. Dalts says that every time they have got into a close-quarters tactical battle they have always won because of the calls made by Smith. It is because of this that Dalts was so careful about making clear in Auckland that - as he put it - he had not "hit Smith over the shoulder with a baseball bat" to get him off the boat. (Just to re-cap, Smith is taking a rest on this leg after having an operation on his shoulder and Paul Cayard has taken his place as tactician, though Dalts was adamant that Smith will be coming back after Rio).

Dalts said he was warned by some that Smith had a reputation for being abrasive and temperamental but he says the relationship has worked a treat. "I haven't had a problem with him," he said. "Most people, when I employed Dee, including Paul Cayard, rang me up and sent me e-mails and said 'you're on drugs, you won't last a week', but we've got on fine, in fact we get on like a house on fire."

But the Kiwi skipper did say this about what could happen by Rio. "Now what's the scenario when we've had a blinder - Cayard's made himself indispensable and we're all in love with one another? What happens then? Why would I want to break a combination like that? The answer is probably I wouldn't, therefore I'd have to look at other ways."

Anyway, despite the problems, he believes his team is still on the up and will benefit with new sails both from Auckland and after Rio. "We're still coming. At best the others have all peaked. Probably half of them are already going off. From other races we know people get a bit pissed off by this stage. But our guys have still got huge energy. They've come into the second half of the rugby match only three points down, while the others are looking tired," he said.