Sailing: Time to play the light fantastic

Gordon Maguire, watch leader on Britain's Silk Cut, says the race to Auckland will be a thriller

The situation we find ourselves in, sixth position overall in a fleet of nine, is one that we did not ever envisage. However, in some weird way, sailing into Sydney in seventh place at the end of leg three of the Whitbread Round The World Race seems to have removed an awful lot of pressure.

It actually came as a total shock to everybody that we could finish a leg in such a low position. It is a real testament to the strength in depth that the fleet has. The most talented and experienced sailors in the world today are in this race. We know we are good, and we are going to finish a lot higher than we are at present; as a group I think we are better as "comeback kids" than race favourites. I am very confident that we are going to turn the last result around in the next two to three legs, beginning with the fourth leg from Sydney to Auckland, which starts today. We are only a third of the way through the race and I think by two-thirds you will see quite a different picture as the true front runners - including Silk Cut - begin to move to the front.

The stopover in Sydney has been frenetic. We have purchased a couple of new spinnakers which have a totally different shape from the ones we used in legs one to three. The entire design philosophy has been updated and we are now much more in line with some of the other spinnakers that we have been beaten by, ie much larger heads (top) and much shorter feet (the bottom of the sail). The new spinnakers are testing much faster than our old ones. With the new sails and more speed has come a new confidence.

This leg is a 1,270 nautical mile sprint. It sounds relatively straightforward; 1,000 miles across the Tasman Sea on a course on 080 degrees, to Cape Reinga, our first landfall, on the tip of New Zealand's North Island, then 270 miles down the coast to Auckland, the "City of Sails", which has been a stopover since the 1977-78 race.

It looks as though the weather is going to be very light and variable, typical for the Tasman Sea at this time of year. There is at present the threat of a tropical storm, however, which could change the whole perspective of the leg, making it very interesting tactically.

If the storm, in the north of the Tasman Sea, materialises, it could give Silk Cut and the rest of the fleet 30-40 mile per hour head winds, which I would expect to cause considerable boat and gear damage. On the whole the fleet will not be expecting bad weather. The boats are set up for light airs, so a spell of strong head winds could cause havoc.

On the other hand, though, if the storm does not come through there will be a sizeable high-pressure ridge, which would mean the winds turning very light indeed. Whatever happens boat speed, as ever, will be crucial. Sheer speed through the water can turn you into a tactical genius. Maybe this is the leg for us to prove just that.

We expect to be match racing more or less the whole way from Sydney to Auckland, but we are determined not to make the same mistake we made in the last leg, where we kicked for home a little too hard and too early, got caught short on the last day and just simply ran out of energy.

Many of the other crews spend a lot more time in the watch system. They are generally running at slightly less than our demanding 90 per cent and consequently have considerable energy reserves at the end of a leg. As we approach Auckland, we may well delay our push for home just a little later. As always, though, it will be totally dependent on the weather.

Once again we are making no crew changes. Despite the poor result in the last leg, the crew are working superbly as a team, so there is no reason to change. We will set the boat up for very light airs; we will take only one spinnaker pole and a light sail inventory. Whatever we start the leg wearing we will end the leg wearing, five days is not that long to be donning the same clothes.

On the food front we will drop out the snacks to save weight - you can live without them for five days. Over the festive period we have been eating and eating, trying to put weight on. When we start to get into a race regime we do not eat enough calories to keep up with the work rate so we start to burn fat quite quickly, and when all the fat has gone the body begins to burn muscle, which is not very good in the middle of a physically demanding ocean race.

The arrival at Auckland is always very special. Auckland is our Wembley. It gives us a small taste of what it is like being a Premiership footballer playing in front of a massive crowd. Coming first into Auckland would be the highlight of my career, a day I would never forget. I've never done it. I've come in second twice; I want to go one better this year. I know Silk Cut can do it.