Grant Dalton - a new dad at 62

Grant Dalton

Sailing legend Grant Dalton has welcomed a new baby to the world.

The Emirates Team New Zealand boss has become a father again at the age of 62 after his partner Tonia gave birth to their baby son, Luke, last month.

It means a very busy time coming up for Dalton, who has three other children with former wife Nicki.

He'll be racing round after the new baby, he's overseeing plans for the America's Cup racing, and in October he's doing some motor racing — Dalton has entered the Targa Rally for its 25th anniversary, where he will be driving a classic 1972 Ford Escort RS1600.

Dalton is fiercely private about his private life and declined to talk to Spy about becoming a Dad for the fourth time.

He kept his separation from NIcki quiet from the team at the America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013.

"What the team never knew was that I had been separated for two years at that stage," he told the Weekend Herald's Canvas magazine two years ago.

"Now I've been separated for five years. Until we left for San Francisco, I was literally living at the Viaduct. I'd been there for a year.

"I kept it from the team on purpose. They need stability. Sponsors, directors, everybody needs to see stability. The only reason the guys ever knew was that when we moved to San Francisco, I moved by myself."

Dalton's Targa race comes 15 years after he first entered the event. He'll be hoping for a better result than his first attempt when he wrote the car off on day four.

He told the Targa Rally Facebook page he blamed the Nissan Silvia Turbo he was driving.

"It was the wrong car. It had a high boost turbo. You had to carry too much corner speed, so that turbo would spool and I found out when we were planted in a bank that probably it wasn't the right car to have," he said.

This year he intends to try to finish, stay steady, keep it out of the banks and not end up in paddocks.

Dalton told the Targa Facebook page he and his partner and friends ride motorcycles a lot in New Zealand.

"We love the scenery, the country, the roads, getting out of the city. To be able to race on closed roads is very attractive and you don't have to worry about the police appearing from behind a lamp post with the radar gun."