Yachting: Dalton hits out at round-the-world doubters

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Doomsayers are giving The Race a bad rap.

It is six weeks until the world's fastest yachts embark on the first non-stop race around the globe, and critics claim the boats should not start the adventure - because they would not finish.

The sailors are adamant they will sail out of Barcelona on New Year's Eve. But the list of misfortunes that have already befallen the fleet have not helped their pre-Race reputation.

Take the cursed Team Phillips. The British multihull has been launched three times, returned to the shed three times.

Even the race favourites, the Kiwi-built PlayStation and Grant Dalton's Club Med, have shown cracks in their record-breaking catamarans.

One boat, Team Adventure, was only launched this week. Another, the boat formerly known as Enza, has yet to touch the water in its rebuilt state.

Rumours whirl around the world's waterfronts that the adventure will be scuttled before the December 31 start.

Concerned members of the sailing fraternity say it should be delayed a few months, even a year, to make sure the boats are sound enough to attack their mission safely.

But the Race organisers, and the sailors themselves, are not having a bar of it.

Dalton, the tough guy of New Zealand sailing, is certain he will leave Barcelona on board Club Med, not a jet.

"If they hadn't sent out the wagon train, they would never have made it to California," he said.

"It's easy for people to sit on the sidelines and snipe. People are always afraid of things they don't know."

Dalton has no sympathy for boats and crew who are not ready to start yet - that is part of the game.

"If those around us are losing their heads, good. It makes it easier for us to win," he said. "Team Phillips are having a few problems, and everyone is being tarred with their brush.

"Our boat is in perfect shape. We've isolated ourselves from the nonsense and we're ready to get going."

Team Phillips finally got its second rig stepped yesterday.

Earlier in the week, one of the masts was damaged when it was dropped from a crane.

It was nothing horrific, but just another hold-up in the progress of Pete Goss' seemingly ill-fated boat. It lost a bow soon after it was first launched, a mast worked itself loose and fell into the bottom of the hull. Then a crewman walked off the boat.

Seven boats are now preparing for the start, but some will have had little more than a month's sailing before they embark on the gruelling circumnavigation.

After months of trying to dig up funds, American Cam Lewis launched Team Adventure in France this week.

It is one of three sister ships, with Club Med and Code One, which has been in the water for a month.

Dalton has no doubts that Team Adventure and Code One will be fit to race, having benefited from Club Med's hiccups.

"They've been able to carry out modifications from what we've learned. I don't really like that.

"I didn't do it to help them, but we've got the same designers," he said.

Team Legato should be launched next week, once it has a mast.

The boat is a proven platform: Sir Peter Blake broke the non-stop round-the-world record on it when it was named Enza six years ago.

But it will only be a contender if it becomes a tortoise-and-hare race, and the hares have broken their legs.

The same goes for Polish entry Polpharma-Warta, once Commodore Explorer, the first boat to round the globe in under 80 days. It has already been dismasted getting ready for this race.

PlayStation, the first of the new breed of fast boats, should be sailing again next week after its hulls were lengthened by 20ft, so the boat is now 125ft long.