Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald thinks the man in the street would be "absolutely terrified" onboard one of the new breed of racing yachts on a windy day in the Volvo Ocean Race. With speeds topping an eye-watering 35 knots - easily fast enough to barefoot waterski behind - the noise and stress levels on both people and equipment can be overawing.
But the 42-year-old McDonald and his chums cheerfully put up with these conditions for up to three weeks at a time.
"It really feels like you're roaring along at the limit of control," said Hamble-based McDonald, 42.
"Even your good inshore sailor would feel pretty threatened in terms of safety.
 |  The boats are faster, more powerful and more complicated - like a turbo charger has been added |
"But of course that's what these boats need to get going."
These boats are the new Volvo 70 that McDonald and his nine-strong crew will race around the world against five other teams.
At 70ft, the yachts - each unique but conforming to a class rule - are 10ft longer but weigh the same as the boats used in the last Volvo Ocean Race in 2001-02.
"It's a big leap in technology," said McDonald, a three-time race veteran who skippered Assa Abloy to second place three years ago.
"The boats are faster, more powerful and more complicated. It's like a turbo charger has been added."
Average speeds have increased by about 15-20%, meaning daily runs could exceed 500 nautical miles in the right conditions.
| NEAL MCDONALD ON: Food: "Freeze-dried, spooned in like baby food. Has improved over the years but not particularly tasty. We rarely have enough time to eat enough and lose 4-5kgs each on a leg." Sleep: "Roughly four hours on, four hours off. Everyone is needed on deck for a sail change, asleep or not. On the off-watch you need to sleep, cook, eat and make repairs." |
And McDonald thinks the 24-hour monohull distance record could be shattered.
Spanish race entry Movistar set the mark of 530.19nm at an average of 22 knots in April 2005.
"If it was your first round-the-world race you'd be pretty wide-eyed. You wouldn't feel too ready to sleep in those conditions," said McDonald, whose wife Lisa skippered an all-female crew in 2001.
Before the last Volvo Ocean Race there were seven other events, sponsored by Whitbread, every three to five years stretching back to 1973.
But with the single-handed round-the world feats of Ellen MacArthur and a modern-day rash of other long-distance ocean races, there a danger that the allure and adventure of the Volvo as the premier crewed event has been diminished.
Not that McDonald agrees.
"There still aren't that many people who have sailed round the world so there's still a huge human endeavour aspect to it," he said.
| It's a continuous grind, there's no let up and no rest |
"It's often asked why you need 10 gorillas to sail these boats and then complain about being tired when Ellen can get a similarly powerful and fast boat around the world on her own.
"But as there are many different disciplines in car racing or athletics, so it's a different type of sailing.
"We'll do an awful lot more sail changes, sometimes every 20 minutes or so.
"In a single-handed environment you physically can't do that. If we sailed these boats like a single hander we'd come last by miles."
But gone are the days of lone boats streaking across oceans without contact for weeks on end.
| NEAL MCDONALD ON: Luxuries: "There aren't any. Weight is taboo. No books, no music, no booze. Just your foul-weather gear and a toothbrush. Not even a towel." Stopovers: "Sun-baked, glamorous parties they are not. The time pressure to refit the boat, meet sponsors and prepare for the next leg is immense. I've been to Cape Town twice and am yet to go up Table Mountain." |
The modern round-the-world race is a multi-media circus with continuous reports, e-mails, photos, video and satellite telephone conferences all beamed back to race headquarters.
"What's made it all the more difficult over the last two or three races is how intense it is," said McDonald, who also lapped the planet on Club Med in The Race in 2001.
"Every second counts. We've done legs of 3000 miles where five or six boats have finished within seconds of each other.
"It's a continuous grind, there's no let up and no rest. People might have an image of us sitting down on deck reading a book. It just doesn't happen.
"You're pushed to the limit of capacity all the time. "When you're not sailing you're so exhausted you sleep for a couple of hours and then you're back into it again.
"But we're driven by a competitive urge. So good days are when you've taken distance out of your opponents and bad days are when you've lost distance.
"Seeing a big whale jump out of the water or seeing a great sunrise or sunset pales into insignificance."
From Cape Town, the fleet then sails eastward round the world in eight more legs, stopping off in Melbourne, Wellington, Rio de Janeiro, Baltimore, New York, Portsmouth, Rotterdam and Gothenburg.
MMIX
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