New Zealander Mike Sanderson sounds quite relaxed, which is probably a good thing considering he is about to embark on a lap of the planet on a yacht.
Speaking from Spain, Sanderson has every reason to feel confident.
His team, Netherlands' entry ABN Amro 1, are tipped alongside Spain's Movistar
as the race favourites in the Mt Everest of sailing - the round-the-world yacht race.
Beginning in Vigo on November 12, seven teams will negotiate four oceans, five continents and nearly 32,000 nautical miles before crossing the finish line in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 17 .
For the first time, short "in-port" races will contribute 22 per cent to the overall score.
The first will be conducted on an Olympic-style, triangle course tomorrow in Sanxenxo, Spain.
"Certainly everyone will be looking at the first leg much closer than the first in-port race," Sanderson said.
"From my standpoint I don't want to get the first in-port race wrong, just for team morale. But in saying that, we won't be hanging our heads if we are to the back of the fleet in the first in-port race ... it is still an around-the-world race."
Although there is no official Kiwi entry, it wouldn't be a sailing regatta without a New Zealander involved. In this case there are several.
Every crew apart from Australian entry Premier Challenge has Kiwis on board.
Sanderson, who won the 1993-94 race with Grant Dalton's New Zealand Endeavour and finished second with Dalton's Merit Cup in the 1997-98 race, will for the first time skipper his own team. His syndicate is a two-boat campaign. Sanderson will skipper the professional team ABN Amro 1 and Frenchman Sebastien Josse the second, development team ABN Amro 2.
"I have got a really great bunch of guys and I wouldn't change any of them. I am really proud of what they have done with the boat ... we are going to give it our best shot for sure."
The new 70ft boats promise seven months of helter-skelter sailing.
According to race organisers, the lighter, faster and stronger boats should complete the course 21 days quicker than their predecessors, the VO 60s. "They are a real handful for sure," Sanderson said.
"We have done speeds in excess of 35 knots already and we have just been in the North Atlantic.
"This race is going to take some self-control to button off because neither man nor machine will be able to deal with it. You are going to have to pick your moment to put your foot to the floor."
Skippered by Bouwe Bekking, Movistar were the second to launch their boat behind ABN Amro and have put in some long hours on the water sailing from Sydney to Europe.
While both teams possess experienced sailing crews, their boats sit at opposite ends of the scale.
ABN Amro 1 is optimised for medium-to-heavy air while Movistar leans towards light-to-medium conditions.
"If you look back over the last two races, the high-speed-reaching boats, like illbruck in the last race, went on to dominate," Sanderson said.
"We very much believe that this is a reaching race," where the boat is travelling approximately perpendicular to the wind.
"We have pushed that pretty hard. We don't want to be drastically slow in the light but we want to be just hanging in there then off in when it is reaching and in breeze."
The Ericsson team have been boosted by the inclusion of American tactician John Kostecki, who skippered illbruck to success in the 2001-02 race.
Kostecki, who left America's Cup team Oracle to join Ericsson, will sail in the in-port races.
Teams are allowed to make a couple of changes to their crew during the in-port races.
Brasil 1 will be skippered by Torben Grael, who made Olympic Games history in Athens last year by becoming the first sailor to win five medals.
The most colourful entry is Pirates of the Caribbean and their yacht Black Pearl - the result of a marketing deal between Walt Disney and Volvo to promote the movie Pirates of the Caribbean II.
Although late to get going, the team is skippered by Paul Cayard who knows what it takes to win having led EF Language to win the 1997-98 race.
Making up the fleet is Premier Challenge from Australia who are still struggling with funding and may yet not make it all the way around the world or even to the startline.
Of the seven boats in the race, four are from the Farr office, the company of New Zealand-born designer Bruce Farr.
Sanderson opted to go with Argentinian designer Juan Kouyoumdjian.
ABN Amro 1 is competing in the round-the-world yacht race.
New Zealander Mike Sanderson sounds quite relaxed, which is probably a good thing considering he is about to embark on a lap of the planet on a yacht.
Speaking from Spain, Sanderson has every reason to feel confident.
His team, Netherlands' entry ABN Amro 1, are tipped alongside Spain's Movistar
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