Three-time America's Cup winner Dennis Conner has decided to take the helm of Toshiba away from Britain's Paul Standbridge for the fourth leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race from Sydney to Auckland. Under the rules race teams have up until 24 hours before the start of each leg to name their full crew.
Conner, the American boat's syndicate chairman, was not part of the crew which navigated the first three legs of the race but monitored his yacht's progress on computer, where race details were updated every six hours.
He is a veteran of the 199293 race in which he co-skippered Winston.
Toshiba, in sixth place, was initially captained by New Zealander Chris Dickson who quit after the first leg to Cape Town. Standridge, skipper for the second and third legs, is now listed as co-skipper with Conner the skipper.
Conner was helmsman of the winning United States yacht in the America's Cup on three occasions, but became the first US skipper to fail to retain the trophy when he lost it to Alan Bond's Australia II in 1983.
The fourth of nine legs in the race starts at Sydney Harbour tomorrow and the nine yachts competing are predicted to cover the 1,270 miles to Auckland by January 9th.
