DESPITE a tactical error which cost him dear in the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, Hamble yachtsman Neal McDonald looks set to keep his job as skipper of Assa Abloy on the third and crucial leg from Sydney to Auckland.

McDonald, husband of Lisa, a rival VOR skipper, was promoted to the top job at the end of leg one in Cape Town when incumbent Roy Heiner was sacked. Despite his late appointment to the project, the popular and talented McDonald was the natural choice to replace him.

For most of the leg from South Africa to Sydney, he kept Assa Abloy in the top three but, with two days to go to the finish, took a navigational gamble and lost out, coming a disastrous sixth in a fleet of seven.

"It was thoroughly upsetting and, since we arrived here, it has not been easy," said McDonald, in an exclusive Daily Echo interview from Sydney.

"Some have called it bad luck but, the truth is, you make your own luck. It is something that you cannot guard against in this sort of race - we took a decision we thought was right at the time and it proved wrong."

Despite the fleet having completed half the Volvo Ocean Race course, only 20 per cent of the total points had been awarded, said McDonald, which meant the race remained wide open.

"The next leg, which takes in the Sydney to Hobart race will not be easy. We will have had Christmas Day kicking around on the beach in Sydney and then we will get on the boat and spend two or three days in some of the worst waters in the world.

"We have the dubious honour of getting into Hobart, cold, wet and tired then spending three hours waiting for the next stage of the race to Auckland to get started. That will be difficult but we still feel we can win.

"All these boats are incredibly competitive so a small mistake can prove costly, as we have seen," said McDonald.

"Assa Abloy is not the fastest all the time but we feel we deserve a podium position and hopefully, we will earn that on this third leg."