Yachting: Yachtie's quick exit no cop out

By JULIE ASH

Joe Spooner copped a bit of flak when he said farewell to his Newscorp team-mates and headed back to Team New Zealand after the first leg of the round-the-world race.

With the second leg - notoriously the wildest and windiest of the nine legs - to come, Spooner's team-mates were convinced the Kiwi was chickening out.

"They gave me a bit of flak on the boat, but I would have loved to have done the Southern Ocean," the 27-year-old said from the safety of his Auckland home.

Newscorp finished third behind illbruck and Amer Sports One after 32 days at sea.

"It was the first time I have done the race and I loved the first leg. It was slow towards the middle but we never really hit the Doldrums too bad," Spooner said.

"It was tactically challenging. Around the islands of Brazil, there were five or so boats together. Two or three of us made bad calls and went east, whereas Amer Sports One and illbruck travelled south. We gybed back and it was too late, which was the difference."

Spooner, deaf in one ear after being seriously bashed at the Atlanta Olympics where he was training partner to Finn sailor Craig Monk, kept in touch with children from the Kelston Deaf Education Centre via e-mail.

During his time at sea, he wore a hearing aid controlled by his watch.

One of about 30 New Zealanders involved in the Volvo race, Spooner returned to Auckland last month and was back training with Team New Zealand a day later.

He said comparing the ocean race to America's Cup racing was like comparing a marathon to a sprint.

"In the ocean race you sort of had four hours on and fours hours off, but you never felt 100 per cent. It wasn't until we reached Cape Town, got off and sat down that it really hit you. It was completely draining."

He said America's Cup racing involved heavier weights on the mast and grinding.

"You feel physically exhausted, but the ocean race is like a marathon - you just have to keep going and going."

Spooner, who required a couple of stitches to his head after he was thrown across the cockpit late in the ocean race, may rejoin Newscorp in later legs once Team New Zealand's summer training ends in April.