Lawrie Smith and his crew in Silk Cut apparently took the lead early yesterday morning in the Whitbread Round the World Race, but later their navigator, Steve Hayles, said it was a computer error. Silk Cut's crew knew there were boats ahead of them on their way to Sydney.

Not too many, however. Paul Standbridge was driving Dennis Conner's Toshiba out at the front of the fleet, according to the computer placement of the boats. Toshiba was 4.2 miles ahead of the second-leg winner, Gunnar Krantz's Swedish Match. Smith and his crew were attacking, four miles behind Swedish Match. They had been at it for the previous 48 hours and had slightly narrowed the gap. In turn, they were three-and-a-half miles clear of Paul Cayard, the first-leg winner, in EF Language. Cayard was 60 miles further south hoping for more favourable breeze.

The two boats which had gone furthest south, Knut Frostad's Innovation Kvaerner and Roy Heiner with Brunel Sunergy, were beginning to reap the rewards of their gamble. Until early yesterday morning, they were losing to the rest of the fleet, but by noon, they had begun to gain quite spectacularly - Innovation Kvaerner 12 miles in six hours.

All the boats were pointing directly towards the entrance to the Bass Strait, more than 1,000 miles away. No one had hoisted a spinnaker, but those furthest south could soon consider the risk to be worthwhile.

Whitbread Round The World Race (third leg, Fremantle to Sydney) - 1 Toshiba 1,486.7 miles to finish; 2 Chessie Racing 6.6 miles behind leader, 3 Silk Cut 7.2, 4 Swedish Match 9.3, 5 Merit Cup 11.9, 6 EF Language 13.4, 7 EF Education 19.1, 8 BrunelSunergy 31.4, 9 Innovation Kvaerner 38.7.