Dalts on form

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

Then we ran through the fleet when Dalts was surprisingly complimentary about everyone, with the notable exception of Knut Frostad's djuice. illbruck: "They still look like they are going to win and will more than likely win this leg (to Rio)." News Corp: "Will do well on this leg." Assa: " Assa is coming - another bad leg to Auckland and they would have fallen to pieces." Tyco: "Still hanging in there." SEB: "Got a problem." djuice: "Forget it - they're going and they might as well stay here."

Just to round things off, I reminded Dalts of the furore he caused when he dismissed the Sydney to Hobart as an over-hyped race for "slow old boats." His reaction second time round underlines two things. One he loves to stir things, and two, that there is a lot of the old Aussie-Kiwi rivalry in this and the sailing world, possibly, should realise that his tongue is at least partly in his cheek.

This is what he said. "You know in this country with the Aussies - every Boxing Day we get this stuff about this 'great bluewater classic' rammed down our throats." He was putting on a mock Australian accent at this point. "And it's just a shitter. It's a bunch of slow old boats." Then he added: "I must admit I wasn't expecting them to react so badly."