Sailing: Smith in need of risk capital

THE gamblers will be praying for a favourable roll of the dice as the fifth leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race, which takes the 14 yachts from Punta del Este, Uruguay, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, starts today.

Lawrie Smith's Intrum Justitia may have been the fastest Whitbread 60 on the three legs around the Antarctic from Punta to Punta, by two hours, but the time cushion of 10 hours over the next W60 and 16 over Intrum established by Chris Dickson in Tokio on the first leg last October has kept him comfortably in the lead ever since.

Smith still has 14 hours to make up and, with just two legs to do it, needs to bank a sizeable chunk of that on this leg to be in striking distance at the start of the final transatlantic dash at the end of May.

In the last race, as skipper of Rothmans, Smith nearly pulled off a flyer on this leg by taking a more easterly route. He has shown throughout his tenure of Intrum that he is prepared to take risks which can also produce gains.

In the Dutchman Marcel van Triest he has a crafty navigator with whom he has worked increasingly closely and he has cut the crew from 12 to 10 for the leg. 'We expect light airs and moderate conditions and we need to keep weight to a minimum,' Smith said. 'We don't need as much manpower in these conditions and two less guys also means less food and gear.'

So, Finland's Markus Mustelin and one of the two other Britons, the photographer Rick Tomlinson, take a break, but will return for the last leg. Staying on board is the second Dutchman, Marco Constant, who joined the boat at the last minute in Auckland when Sweden's America's Cup skipper Gunnar Krantz left. He and Smith did not get on.

Krantz has now joined the opposition, in the form of the pressure cooker run by Dickson, and so will be able to think through the tactics of the boat he once sailed on. Not that Dickson has to do anything other than sail fairly conservatively in order to protect what is such a big lead.

Smith and Dickson know that, by having a slightly narrower hull shape, Brad Butterworth on Winston and Ross Field onYamaha will be hoping to exploit what may be a light-airs advantage, but the performance differences are so small that they, too, need more than just a respectable win if they are to challenge Dickson.

For Butterworth, it will be important as he takes the yacht to its home country. For Field, there is the burning wish to see what many considered would be the fastest boat, by virtue of being the latest in the Bruce Farr design thought, achieve its potential.

Also missing crewmen, but for much sadder reasons, will be the French maxi La Poste. The four in question are being held by the Uruguayan authorities, accused of assault and deprivation of liberty when they caught a burglar.

In the Maxi division, Grant Dalton also has a comfortable lead, but he is only a couple of hours ahead of Dickson. While the 60s have been restricted on the last three legs by not being allowed their much bigger masthead gennakers, they will be able to use them for the trip up the coast of Brazil and through the Caribbean to Florida. They may be in different classes, but the Maxi v W60 tussle is at least a close race.

It will be the first time that Smith has been able to race with the big kites, but such is his eye for sail shapes and settings, along with the experience of the pan-European crew, that he will quickly squeeze the maximum out of the boat.

He has used up most of the permitted 43 new sails for the whole race by also having a new mainsail for this leg. At the very least he will want to say at the end that, taking legs two to six, when he was skipper of Intrum, he beat Dickson. But the tantalising dream of pipping him overall will be too tempting for him to do anything other than allow his gambling nature full rein.

WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE Leading positions (at start of fifth leg from Punta del Este, Uruguay, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Overall: Maxis: 1 New Zealand Endeavour (G Dalton, NZ) 84 days 16hr 58min 23sec; 2 Merit Cup (P Fehlmann, Swit) 85:12:05:12; 3 La Poste (E Tabarly, Fr) 87:00:10:48. Whitbread 60s: 1 Tokio (C Dickson, NZ) 84:18:55:00; 2 Intrum Justitia (L Smith, Europe) 85:09:06:49; 3 Yamaha (R Fields, NZ) 85:12:43:45.