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The shock of Cayard’s first leg win was soon overtaken by the announcements that rocked the race fraternity during the Cape Town stopover. Toshiba dropped the first bombshell, revealing that co-skipper Chris Dickson had resigned. The rumours concerning his relations with the crew and syndicate head Dennis Conner were rife, but Dickson claimed the decision was "a personal one” and kept his reasons to himself. Paul Standbridge, a respected and popular member of the crew was appointed skipper for the next leg, but there was uncertainty as to whether this was a permanent appointment and Standbridge was clearly as perplexed as everyone else.

Then Neil Barth, a doctor from Cleveland Ohio, who had been the first to register his syndicate America’s Challenge, but the last to confirm due to a shortfall in funds, announced his campaign was over and the boat would be withdrawn. Sponsorship funds that had been pledged for skipper Ross Field, winner of the 1993-94 Whitbread, and his crew to get the boat round the world never materialised and they, and the boat, remained in Cape Town when the fleet set off for Fremantle.

As usual, most skippers hugged the shore line on the way out except Gunnar Krantz in Swedish Match who stunned everyone when he veered off sharply and headed west. It was only later that the decision was explained, but it was to be one of the all-time great tactical coups.

Co-skipper Erle Williams had spotted a freighter far offshore and could see smoke curving steeply away from the stack. He consulted with Krantz, who immediately swung the nose round and headed in the same direction.

"My legs started to shake a little as we tacked over there," Williams said. "Gunnar just kept driving the boat fast. I think if he had got shaky I would have bailed out and we would have trailed the whole fleet back into the coast."

They found the wind and made big advances on the fleet, which was crawling along at less than one knot, and by the fifth day the lead had been extended to a whopping 205 nm, Innovation Kvaerner hapless in second place.

As soon as they hit the Roaring Forties, the picture changed dramatically and both front-runners took off. They claimed to enjoy the battering they received.

“Yes, we are in the Roaring Forties," reported Knut Frostad "It is windy, wet, cold and wet, wet, wet, wet. And we love it."

Swedish Match reported a 24-hour run of 420.6 nm, just 14 nm shy of the monohull record set by Toshiba in July, but behind them, the pace was a little slower.

Lawrie Smith, stuck in a high pressure system, was not happy. "There is an old saying that below 40 there is no law, below 50 there is no God, and below 60 there is no mercy," wrote Smith. "We think that it should be amended to read that below 40 there is no wind! It is extremely frustrating to be faced with this situation, sailing in very little wind when the boats ahead are worrying about whether they will break the 400 nm day or not.”

Krantz’s early gamble gave Swedish Match a 300-nm lead after a week’s racing and he was still almost 200 nm ahead when they crossed the Fremantle finish line, having achieved the highest average speed sailed on any leg in The Whitbread's 25-year history, at 13 knots.

“They had enjoyed a lot of luck,” he said. “The weather gods looked after us in critical situations. We sometimes looked with panic at the barometer that looked like a profit diagram for Microsoft. It was very scary and close,” he said.

The boats had taken a battering in the Southern Ocean, but there were no casualties, except for the prides of Cayard who came in fifth and Hans Bouscholte on Dutch entry BrunelSunergy, which for the second time in two legs came last. The skipper was promptly replaced as another round of crew changes was unravelled during the stay in Australia.

Chessie Racing co-skipper Mark Fischer stood down and was replaced by George Collins, an amateur yachtsman who had pretty much funded the campaign, while on Silk Cut Smith said there would be no changes despite their disappointing fourth place, and he found consolation in setting a new 24-hour world monohull speed record of 449.1 nm, breaking the previous one by 15 nm.