The reluctant hero - pt2

Neal McDonald talks to James Boyd about his plans and what to do with the Volvo Ocean Ocean

The other side of sailing McDonald would like to get back into is multihulls. "I'd like to see a British 60ft tri campaign and I'm pretty confident there is enough knowledge and expertise so that within a couple of years we could go and kick some arse with that. If an opportunity arises to be involved in that sort of campaign and fly the British flag I'd be the first man to jump into the quagmire. There is no doubt to me that that is where sailing is going to go". We couldn't agree more.

Later in our conversation we fantase about a return of the Formula 40 class with cats and tris zooming about the Solent every weekend - people coming down to the Solent to watch the racing - Tony Buckingham or someone would buy one tomorrow - 25 knots in 8 knots of breeze - not hugely expensive.

At a more modest level the McDonalds have a Hurricane cat in their garden which they take out to frighten themselves occasionally. "Lisa has missed out on the whole dinghy era. I enjoyed my dinghy sailing so much that we jokingly say we might go and do some of this catamaran sailing, like the Hog's Breath [Worrell 1000] or whatever they call it".

In his role as skipper of Assa Abloy, McDonald has been developing his views on the issue of what should be done with the Volvo Ocean Race, in particular the type of boat that should be used for the next race. "Someone said to me 'you've got two arms, two ears, two legs, what the hell are you going around the world on one hull?' To me it has got to be a multihull. Why are we slogging our guts out going around at a hull speed of 10 knots? It's a joke".

Although the racing might not initially be as competitive as it is at present, he feels that the value for sponsors would be better and that is the most important issue. He envisages multihulls of more than 80ft in length and believes they don't have to be expensive.

Generally the consensus is that multihulls, because they can capsize would not align with Volvo's impeccable image of safety, but McDonald refutes this. "I don't know why it is not a Volvo thing. You can't sink them". However he adds that it shouldn't be the sailors who make the decision. "I find it difficult to understand how the sailors think they should decide on the boats because it is the sponsors paying the bills. It has got to be for them."

On the subject of sponsors getting bang for their buck he thinks the stopovers are good. "I thoroughly hate the stopovers, but I do believe that is where sponsors get their value for money. For instance Assa is bringing 2,000 people to Miami. For us to win the leg and for them to bring 2,000 people, they're getting what they want out of it. For me to keep on doing my sport I've got to have sponsors who are getting what they want, so the stopovers are important". He sees the next race having somewhere between five and ten stopovers.

Whatever happens it seems likely that next time round McDonald will be on the start line of this race again and if he has his way it will be in a British boat.

Neal greet his wife Lisa, skipper of Amer Sports Too