By JULIE ASH
SYDNEY - Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One crew want to make this New Year one to remember.
The leading yachts in the round-the-world race are expected to finish leg three, from Sydney to Auckland, about January 4, and Dalton wants to be the first to sail into his
home port.
After finishing second in the first leg, from Southampton to Cape Town, Dalton's yacht crashed to fourth in the second leg, leaving them third overall in the nine-leg race.
Although Amer Sports One's second leg was marred by illness and injury - trimmer Keith Kilpatrick was taken off the boat with stomach problems and then Dalton fell, breaking two ribs and several vertebrae - the New Zealand skipper knows they can do better.
In a fleet of this calibre, bad results did not necessarily mean bad sailing, he said.
"In the first leg, we didn't identify much except we sailed the boat okay.
"But in the last leg I really knew what we were dealing with.
"We had a high-speed problem - the boat is too big and drags too much."
The crew had improved the yacht's reliability - which in the first leg was "shocking" - and identified a speed problem in high winds, but could not do anything about that.
Amer Sports One had been stripped, cleaned and put back together since arriving in Sydney on December 4.
"It has been a hell of a campaign since we started, and it is only here, and only this week, that I think we have the campaign under control - which is about right.
"I thought it would take us to Auckland before we had it."
Dalton returned to Auckland yesterday to spend Christmas with his family but will be back on deck in Sydney tomorrow afternoon.
"We are finished and ready to go."
His back was tender but "certainly improving". He had sailed all week, and even been out for a run.
"Now at night in bed I can turn over, whereas two weeks ago I couldn't.
"What I don't need is a whack."
