Why Mike Slade is beefing up the crew on Leopard for the Sydney Hobart

I am back in London for the holidays. One of the many nice things about "Limeyland" is that the newspapers here write about sailing on a reasonably frequent basis. For instance, in today's Daily Telegraph, there was a great piece about Mike Slade's Leopard's entry in the Sydney-Hobart.

Leopard normally races with a crew of 22 but for this race, she will be sailing with 26. Why?

"So we are down in Australia, some of my very favourite people in the world, but we are intent on flying the flag. We could sail Leopard with a race crew of 22 but I have my own reasons for going with 26.

"The sailing rationale is that you can get some extreme weather on the Sydney-Hobart and you need a full complement all the time on Leopard when she is flat-out. She is incredibly high performance but a hard sail into the wind. I'm normally the first to succumb to sea-sickness, which at least makes everybody else feel better.

"But the most important reason I need 26, of course, is my cricket match on Dec 29 after we get to Hobart. I have hired a ground and a few tents and things. It will basically be England against the Rest. So that's 22 bodies accounted for. Then we will need two umpires and a scorer. That makes 25. And then clearly there has to be somebody to regularly dispense Pimms or ice-cold lager. It can be a very hot business. So 26 it is. There is usually method in my madness."

The guy has more money than God but, boy does he put it to good use. For this attitude alone I hope he wins and blasts the record books!