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At 34 years old Iker Martínez is already something of an institution in Spanish sailing. His successes back this up and those that are surely to come will do the same. If there's anything that this Basque sailor does well it's taking on a challenge and fighting with all his might to overcome it. With just one week to go until he makes his début in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 Iker spoke to us about his team, Team Telefónica, and about how they will take on the next nine months of round the world competition.

With the first inshore race just one week away and following almost two years of preparation, would you dare to give us a sneak preview of the next nine months for Team Telefónica?

This 'Volvo' is looking good to us right now, which is just as well, because it hasn't even started yet and we'd be in trouble if it didn't! (laughs). We are really looking forward to it. In this regatta your 'machine' is very important indeed and we feel we've done a good job, so in that sense we don't see any reason why we can't reach a very high level, both in terms of our boat and our crew... We'll just have to see what happens when we get there, but we are really looking forward to it.

How does it feel to head up a crew with a total of 23 circumnavigations of the globe between them?

It's a great responsibility. You take it on, or at least I take it on by working as hard as possible each day and by trying to meet the expectations, which are, of course, very high. What I think really matters is that the crew itself is happy and that to a certain extent they make things easy for you. We have a group of people with a very open dialogue and each of them brings a lot to the team and so we all feel very responsible for what goes on on board. In that sense I'm happy and I think that within the responsibility I have we will all help each other.

Six boats on the starting line isn't a big figure, but five of them are latest generation Volvo Open 70s with many months of preparation and training under their belts. Do you think that the level playing field between teams is a key feature in this edition of the round the world regatta?

Even now none of us would know which of the teams to suggest might do best at the beginning of the regatta. Further ahead things will even out as each of the teams gets the most out of their boat performance, but really we have no idea yet which of the teams will look best and that makes us think that this will be a very tight and very competitive regatta.

What aim is Team Telefónica taking to the staring line?

Team Telefónica's aim was to reach the starting line with a high enough level to be able to fight to win the regatta, and we hope we've achieved that. We haven't had the chance to size ourselves up against our rivals yet, but we think that we've worked hard and we should do well. Later it'll be a matter of seeing how the regatta goes, because even at a very high level, the competition is what it is and things can turn out in many different ways. We need to keep fighting, bit by bit and hope that things go well for us, that we don't have any problems and we can push forward. Nine months are a lot of months and so much can happen, but we'll be very excited and fighting for each and every leg.

“Telefónica” is a third generation Volvo Open 70, so the latest in the evolution of the class. What differences are there between this edition and the previous one?

The new “Telefónica” is in some ways similar to the former “Telefónica Blue”. The rule is the same, but of course, there's been an evolution over four years and many things have changed. The main change is that this boat has been built much more geared towards medium and strong breeze, which means that she probably won't be as fast as the old one in light winds, but most of the regatta is raced in winds of 15 knots upwards. That's what we've been focussed on optimising, both in terms of the boat and the sails as well as our own knowhow and we've been training more in these conditions. The rest is fairly similar.

For the second time now, Alicante is the starting port for the Volvo Ocean Race. To what extent does this affect the morale of the Spanish team?

Setting off from home for us is a treat, and we are really happy about it. The time spent on shore before the start is very intense, so if you're at home with your family everything is that bit easier to handle. When it comes down to it setting off well is important, so I think it's definitely a bit of an advantage.