Intro:

Abu Dhabi Oceon Racing captain Ian Walker believes the light winds out of Alicante, Spain will be "a real leveller" for the boats, when the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race begins on Saturday.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Chris Nicholson, Team Vestas Wind

"I think it's nice for us, it's a lot of miles and it gets us a lot of manoeuvres, it helps us improve and it's only one weeks worth of points. You know I'm hoping we can be, a consistent result, obviously on the podium would be great, so you know, that's our goal."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Iker Martínez, MAPFRE

"I'm feeling more relaxed than ever, I don't know exactly why. Everything is going ok, we were able to do everything we planned, so we are feeling better than that what we always expected to be here. I'm also feeling a little bit like Nico (Chris Nicholson), we just try to learn as much as we can, quick, without losing many points to the guys that have more experience this time with these boats."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing

"It's going to be really light, the latest forecast, I haven't looked this morning, but certainly yesterday was looking very light out of here. On the wind, through the straits and then pretty light and random after that as well possibly. So as Nico (Chris Nicholson) also says, that's going to be a real leveller, you know when it's light and fiddly, I guess you've just got to make sure you don't get left behind - it can happen pretty fast in these boats. I think the challenge is staying in touch and learning as much as you can and giving yourself a chance at doing well once you get down south and get some strong wind."