KEY POINTS:
"You won't make a living out of sailing," John Graham, headmaster of Auckland Grammar, told a young Craig Monk.
Monk, then a sixth former, had just informed Graham he was leaving school to become a sailor.
As Monk recalls, the former All Black loose forward, who had mapped
out a rugby career for the burly youngster, didn't take the news well.
"He looked blown away," Monk said.
"He said we have you set up to be a prefect, play in the first XV and maybe become an All Black.
"I said 'no, I want to be a sailor'.
"He said 'you won't make a living out of sailing'."
A year later Monk went back to Grammar to talk about his trip to the world youth championships. In 1992 he returned with his Olympic medal and in 1995 with the America's Cup.
Having already proven Graham wrong - and they have since shared a laugh about the comment - Monk hopes to rub it in next year and win the America's Cup for what will effectively be his third time, as a grinder with Chris Dickson's Oracle.
Monk, who weighs around 110kg and regularly consumes a couple of chickens a day, didn't start out as such a strapping lad.
His first love was athletics where he competed in long and short distance events .
"I always wanted to go to the Olympics as a runner.
"Dad was a competitive runner, he ran in the 10,000m against Peter Snell."
His introduction to sailing came when his family moved to New Plymouth and his father bought a Sunburst.
"Dad was learning and I was only five. We spent more time swimming around with the boat upside down."
The family moved to Auckland in 1979, which is where Graham spotted him playing rugby at intermediate school and invited him to Grammar.
While Monk showed plenty of promise he enjoyed the solitude sailing provided.
"I went through this period where, if I was on my own I felt I was in control - the more I trained, the better I got.
"I started winning national titles ... then I trained harder and was on the world stage when I was 16 or 17 and thought, this is pretty cool."
Monk won the Tanner Cup in 1983, a P-Class regatta which most of New Zealand's famous yachties have won. Five years ago he bought Staccato, the yacht he sailed in it.
"Of all the yachting I have done, winning the Tanner Cup stands out. The friends I made back then are still my friends now."
Monk also won the Starling nationals in 1983 then moved into the Laser training alongside Russell Coutts who was preparing for the 1984 Olympics.
As a sailmaking apprentice Monk was sweeping the floors, which he claims he did for the first two years of his career, when news of Coutts' victory in the Finn came over the radio.
" I thought, 'Geez he's just won a gold medal, I sail with him down at the club. That's when I thought, 'if he can do it, I'll give it a go'."
It took him eight years to get there but in 1992 Monk finished third in the Finn in Barcelona.
After that Coutts persuaded him to join Team New Zealand.
"I wasn't anti the America's Cup but I felt it stole the limelight. I looked at some of the guys in the 1992 team and thought, 'they are not that good, and the nation is pumping them up - our best sailors are here at the Olympics'."
Nevertheless, Monk joined and sailed in every race. With no reserves he had little choice.
"Back then the course was twice as long and we didn't have special gears in the winches so you were spinning so fast ... almost shaking your fillings out."
What he remembers most from winning the Cup is coming home and the parades in the major cities.
"It was magical."
He stayed and defended the Cup before moving to OneWorld.
"It felt natural we went our own ways. Arguably the Cup would still be here if we had stayed together but the Cup has entered a new phase, what is going on is exciting."
Now with Oracle, Monk has the added responsibility of being sailing team manager. "I am like the father of all the sailors," he laughs.
While intense is a word often used to describe Oracle, and in particular Dickson, Monk has no problem with it: "To me, Chris is up there with Russell - he is definitely the fastest helmsman in a straight line I have sailed with and I have sailed with them all.
"He is intense on the water but we are out there to win. I am not going to put my life on hold for someone that is not there to win. He gets the best out of the guys and that is what it is about."
Four months out from the Cup, Oracle are second to Team New Zealand in the challenger rankings.
"Team New Zealand is doing a good job of keeping a low profile, I think they are doing better than what the public realise.
"They are focused and are working to bring the Cup back.
"I think the challenger is going to win. I say that because the venue is so fickle that the racing is going to be the key side of it. The challengers will benefit from racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup."
For the grinders, who help with all the manoeuvres, the prospect of close racing is daunting.
"Imagine the All Black pack scrumming for two non-stop sessions of 20-25 minutes up and down the paddock. That's what its like to be a grinder - it is a real slugfest."
Mr Graham would be impressed.
CRAIG MONK
Born: Stratford, May 23, 1967
Height: 1.80m
Weight: 110kg
Position: Grinder
Status: Married to Nicola, son Finn (18 months)
AMERICA'S CUP 2007: BMW Oracle racing - sailing team manager
2003: OneWorld
2000: Team New Zealand, defended the America's Cup.
1995: Team New Zealand, won the America's Cup.
OTHER 1996: Olympic Games Atlanta - Finn class
1994 Goodwill games, Russia - Finn gold medallist
1992: Olympic Games Barcelona - bronze medal Finn