Dennis Conner skippered the Toshiba boat to a narrow lead on Tuesday in a hotly-contested Sydney-to-Auckland leg of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

Only 40 minutes separated the first six yachts. Conner took the lead in the 1,270-nautical-mile fourth leg when he made up 5.5 nautical miles. He gave the rest of the fleet a head start on Sunday after he jumped the gun and was obliged to trail the other yachts through Sydney harbour.

Toshiba was 3.7 nautical miles ahead of second-placed Swedish Match and was averaging a speed of 12 knots.

Third-placed Merit Cup was 4.9 nautical miles behind the leader and was being closely followed by early race leaders, EF Language and Silk Cut.

American entry, Chessie Racing, was the last of the leading bunch of six and was 7.9 nautical miles off the pace.

The only yacht to report any damage so far has been the seventh-place Norwegian entry Innovation Kvaerner.

"Down below we are struggling a bit with a leaking ballast tank and a drain for the water-maker that doesn't work," said skipper Knut Frostad.

Frostad said the crew hoped to have the problems fixed soon "if not we are going to be pretty thirsty".

BrunelSunergy and the all-female crew on board EF Education are in eighth and ninth positions.

The fleet of nine yachts is expected to reach Auckland on Thursday or Friday.
 

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