THE MAN WITH A MISSION
THE LONE OPEN 50 SKIPPER SAILING THE GLOBE IN MEMORY OF HIS BELOVED SON HAS UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Name: Graham Dalton
Nationality: New Zealand
Residence: New Zealand
DOB: info to follow
Marital status: info to follow
Age at start of race: 53
Boat name: A Southern Man - AGD
Sponsors: Include; New Zealand Rigging, Kiwi Yachting, Navtec, Line 7, Lewmar, Anzor
Shortly before his third birthday, Dalton's mother gave him a book on sailing and prophesied that her son would be a sailor. Fifty years later, this tall, straight-talking Kiwi continues to fulfil his mother's accurate prediction with the latest sailing exploit: entering the Velux 5 Oceans. The Dalton family's approach to sailing instilled self-reliance at a formative age: "When I was young there was a bit of offshore training, but really you were pushed off in a boat and it was up to you." This philosophy produced impressive results and while Graham's younger brother, Grant, would find fame in the fully-crewed offshore racing and the inshore niche of America's Cup yachting, elder brother Graham followed the 1967-68 single-handed circumnavigation of Sir Francis Chichester with intense fascination and swiftly recognised where his future lay. During Chichester's voyage, a second influence and invaluable principle was indelibly engraved on the young Kiwi's character: "There was a teacher at school who said to us, and I'll never forget: 'The dreams you will have as boys will be the strongest of your life; never let them fade.' From that day on I decided that solo sailing was what I wanted to do."
"I don't have a problem with failure. I have a problem with not trying or giving up"
The road to fulfilling these dreams has been far from smooth. Dalton entered the previous edition of the Velux 5 Oceans (2002-2003 Around Alone) with the Open 60 Hexagon and incurred a hefty time penalty for the late completion of his pre-race, qualifying voyage. By Leg 3 of the race, from Cape Town, South Africa, to New Zealand, Dalton was beginning to show his true form and blazed across the Indian Ocean to finish third in Class 1. The following leg to Brazil proved both tough and, eventually, catastrophic, shattering any hope of completing the circumnavigation. First, the yacht's ultra-fine, carbon fibre boom snapped in the brutal Southern Ocean west of Cape Horn and the boat was later rolled as Hexagon rounded the world's southernmost cape. Dalton then watched his ambitions vaporise within a week when the yacht dismasted just north of the Falkland Islands, forcing him to retire from the race and head for port in Patagonia.
"There isn't going to be anytime in port to have any downers. You are going to have to be right on your game from the start guns"
As Dalton made plans for a second circumnavigation and the conclusion of "unfinished business", his 22 year-old son, Tony, was fighting a highly aggressive germ cell cancer that proved resistant to all forms of treatment. Dalton put any offshore plans on hold and devoted his time entirely to a world wide search for an effective cure but, despite exhaustive investigation, Tony died just before Christmas last year. On 22nd October 2006, the Kiwi skipper will cross the start line of the Velux 5 Oceans on a brand new Open 50: The yacht's name? "It's A Southern Man - AGD, Tony's initials, with his photo by the side so he can come round with me."
"I view the Southern Ocean as the birthplace of Heaven and Hell"
THE BOAT
Boat name: A Southern Man-AGD
Sail number: 02
Designer: Greg Elliot
Builder: Davie Norris
Launched: 2006
Construction: Carbon-Nomex
Type: Open 50
LOA: 15.24m
Beam: 4.56m
Draft: 4.1m
Displacement: 5000kg
Movable ballast: Canting keel
Board: 3m daggerboard
Rig type: Fixed, three spreaders
Mast height: 23m
|
