By Suzanne McFadden
As he sailed through the solar eclipse yesterday, New Zealand round-the-world skipper Ross Field was in the dark about his future campaigns.
This week Field slashed seven-and-a-half hours off the Fastnet race record and finished runner-up in the world maxi championships.
Now he has to find the dollars for another
big project.
Field is still chasing the idea of sailing in The Race, the non-stop, round-the-globe event starting on New Year's Eve, 2000.
He had plans to build a monster trimaran.
The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread, is also a possibility.
But Field will have to attract foreign funding to support either plan, so he is staying in Europe to hunt around.
"Things aren't looking that flash for The Race - we're running out of time," he said.
"But there's an option of purchasing a boat that's being built in France right now. I've looked briefly at the Volvo.
"But I've been on the water for the last four months and now it's time to start looking seriously at the next big thing."
Field skippered RF Yachting NZ, a maxi he chartered, to be the first monohull home in the Fastnet race, setting a new race record of 2 days 5 hours 8 minutes. Fifteen of the 18 crew on board were Kiwis.
But the victory was not enough to clinch the world maxi cxhampionship for the New Zealanders. A multi-regatta event, it was won by Swedish skipper Ludde Ingvall on European boat Skandia. French America's Cup crew Le Defi were third overall.
Field picked up 300,000 Swiss francs for finishing second, and sailed the boat back to Plymouth yesterday, having to turn on the navigation lights during the eclipse of the sun.
"I haven't made a cent this year," he said. "It sounds like a great cheque - but when you pay for the boat, and pay the crew, there's not much left."
