Grant Dalton talks to madforsailing

Ed Gorman's conversation with the victorious Kiwi reveals some tensions among the crew of Club Med

Soon after crossing the finish line off Marseille, a delighted and feisty "Dalts" spoke to Ed Gorman about his victory in The Race, plus his views on the French, the WSSRC and the future.

So, Dalts, how d'you feel? You seem to be absolutely over the moon, to use the old sporting cliche?
Yeah. I think basically I was caught completely by surprise by the welcome which is a good thing. I guess I've got Auckland welcomes - Whitbread welcomes - sort of driven into my brain and it just got me completely by surprise. Bloody hell - it was just bloody huge.

Emotional moments for you?
Yeah. We tried to teat this race really clinically and professionally. We wanted to be more Schumacher than Irvine, if you will, to do the job. It was really only on Friday afternoon that I started to accept that we were going to do the job and so just coming in was like 'Thank Christ...it can't be taken away now. The rig won't fall down and we can't hit another hunk of wood like we did near Gibraltar at 25 knots and rip the bottom out of the boat - it's over.'

The impression we've got from looking at it from the outside is that you took the lead in mid-January and then, one way or another, controlled the race very nicely from the front. Is that how you see it?
It went really according to plan. I think the French media are trying to have us say that we must have learnt alot and must have understood the way the French must do it now (ie multihull sailing). But, in reality, we didn't do anything different than we normally do. The Whitbread/Volvo I now see is an invaluable proving and testing ground and you cut your teeth there. We learnt nothing new here in terms of how to sail. Once you get in front, it was just 'man and the mark', you know. We controlled our pace too - you don't do your fastest lap on your last lap.

The other thing that has been very, very clear from your progress is that the build-up, the preparation, the alterations you made to the boat - the thoroughness of it all, rams home the lesson that he who is best-prepared will do best.
Yes. This race was always about that and I think there is a difference in ethic between the Anglo-Saxon and the French. We just do it differently. I imagine they will take something from this. It's just the Kiwi way. Be prepared and just try and do the job. Their whole flair nature is one thing, but God knows how many (extra) miles they've sailed on Innovation Explorer - they've sailed one-and-a-half times round the world, while we've been going 'man and the mark' all the time.

Going back to last March, you were unsure then about taking these big cats around the world, you were concerned about safety and about the credibility of the event. Now you've done it, how d'you feel about these aspects?
There was no stage at any time when we felt unsafe. The nose-dives that we did were always nose-dives straight into the face of the wave in front. They were never vertical nose-dives when your rudders are out and you are going to picth-pole. We never, ever felt unsafe in the boat. I was concerned about the sideways tip - lifting a hull, sheet jammed, can't get it off and it goes over. But we never got close to that. The time we broached in the Atlantic with a full-sized gennekar up was a bit hairy - that was a mistake - that was all-on with 1,200sq metres of sail, head to wind in 30 knots. That was the only time we thought it would end in tears. So safety-wise, no problem. The boat is just so bloody big. If you want to slow it down, you can. Just pull down the canvas. As far as the credibility of The Race, well you guys are in a better position to judge than me. I think it's got by, but it would have been better if it was a bigger event with more boats. But if they'd never pushed the wagon trains out of New York, they'd have never made it to California, you know. This has hopefully proved a point and other events that are struggling at the moment should take note - simplicity is very important for the general public to understand.

You've gone form being a complete unknown in multihull sailing to being one of the world's top multihull skippers in 62 days flat. Are you going to come back to this event, if it is run again?
First thing is, there's no difference between multihulls and monohulls, no differece at all. One's got two hulls, the other's got one, but that's the only bloody difference. We believed, right from the start, that it was wrong to think they were different...

But can you see yourself coming back to this event?
Er...no. I've got a Volvo and I'm leaving. I'm moving on.

How frustrating is it for you that Club Med probably will not be the official world record holder because, even though you have smashed Sport Elec's time (71 days), the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) says you have not sailed a long enough course and have not started and finished from the same point?
I think the answer to that is that the world record is simply going to be in a little book in the WSSRC. Anybody that now goes round the world - whether we are in the WSSRC book or not - will get compared to us - whether our time is in a little card in some stuck-up Pom's draw or not. I think they're making a credibility mistake by not recognising this. Let's take the Jules Verne course (starting and finishing from the line between Ushant and the Lizard). If you do it now, unless you break 60-odd days or our time, what have you got - you've got nothing.

In terms of average speed, you achieved 18 knots, that's four knots faster than Sport Elec.
That's right. You will always compare what we did, whether we're in the WSSRC or not, so I think they need to take a good look at themselves and say 'we are hurting our own credibility by not recognising the fastest circumnavigation ever'.

What are you most proud about in this campaign? You've brought together a disparate group and worked-up a boat in an unknown field. What aspect has given you the most satisfaction?
I'd say taking a boat that, in its initial form when it was launched in May, probably couldn't have made it to the Canary Islands. And maybe changing the order of things and taking some pretty tough decisions right in the face of conventional wisdom and saying: 'This boat's not strong enough. I know it comes from a different culture, but this ain't going round the world, this will not make it.' To me these were hard decisions, telling Gilles Ollier (Club Med's designer) he was wrong - that has been satisfying - just proving that using your old instincts still works.

Obviously you have some great guys on the crew of Club Med. Can I ask about one of them who is British - Neal McDonald. What role has he played and how impressed have you been by him?
He's been just unbelievable. He's the guy that I went to structurally, he's the guy I went to sail-call wise. He was very, very important. But you've got to talk about Ed Danby and Jan Dekker too. My three-man army. When it broke they fixed it - they were just bloody awesome. They were just unbelievable. The French would be floundering around trying to fix something and these guys would have already fixed it and they fixed plenty. We had Jan climbing free-hand inside the rig, just to clear halyards and stuff like that - just to get the bloody thing done quickly.

So he was an excellent last choice?
He was a bloody beauty. But Ed and Neal were superb - that's the Anglo-Saxon thing - they're like Kiwis and we're like them. We get in, do the job and then we sit back afterwards - we don't sit and talk about it for three hours.

Obviously it's early days, but you are now moving swiftly on to your Volvo campaign. You're obviously going to take a lot of lessons from this event, even though it is a very different sort of racing. Do you feel ready and up for the Volvo now?
Not yet. I've got a huge mountain to climb in the Volvo. I'm really putting it all on the line. This one maybe is a bridge too far. It worries me enormously that we are years behind. How can I be that far behind and expect to get up there and win it? It's a big one. So all I can do is work like hell and hope like hell we get it right because this is a big 'ask', it really is. I think the important thing is not to try and be too clever - not to try to re-invent the wheel and try and be steady. I've thought it through pretty carefully. If we start the Volvo, what are we looking for? It's a nine-leg race. A top-four finish in the first leg - that's all I'm looking for.

Finally, you've gone round in 62 days - that is at the better end of what we thought was possible. What do you think the limit is for this generation of supercats? Into the 50s?
Yeah, you could get into the 50s. Remember the course we sailed had 2,000 extra miles to get through the Cook Strait. When you compare it with the Jules Verne, we've done a shitload more miles and had to cross a high pressure under New Zealand. So getting into the 50s in a Jules Verne environment is definitely feasible. On this course, you could go under 60 - absolutely - it's a weather issue.

Thanks Dalts and congratulations.