Sailing: New challenge for Kostecki as tactical battle looms

John Kostecki is on a roll. The American skipper's German-flagged illbruck challenge has won three of the four legs so far in the Volvo Ocean Race. He has a seven-point margin over his nearest rival, Grant Dalton on Amer Sports One, and, as there are only eight points at most on offer per leg, that gives him nearly a whole leg in hand.

Financial worries about the transition to an America's Cup campaign when the Volvo finishes in Kiel in June are receding. He has proved he has the boat to succeed in the heavy stuff. He also knows he has both the crew and the painstakingly-developed equipment to do just as well as the race enters a new phase with the start, in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow, of the 4,450 mile fifth leg to Miami.

New developments are constantly being introduced, mainly in the shape of new sails, and these are matched by a change of gear in strategic thinking.

While any leg can produce rough conditions, including the volatile Gulf Stream on the sixth leg to Baltimore and the transatlantic leg from there to La Rochelle, the hard miles of the Southern Ocean are now behind them and the crews will be expecting a more subtle, tactical game for the remainder of the race.

As planned, Dee Smith returns from shoulder surgery to take up a tactical role alongside the navigator Roger Nilson on Dalton's second-placed Amer Sports One as the fourth-leg replacement Paul Cayard has been sailing an Olympic Star class keelboat in this week's Miami-based Bacardi Cup.

Dalton has also decided to unveil five new sails ­ each boat is allowed a maximum of 38 for the whole race ­ as he cannot afford to fall too far behind. He is now confident that he has the tools for the job but is still smarting at the way his fifth in the last leg into Rio increased Kostecki's cushion and knows that he has to grind down that seven-point margin in order to fulfil his promise not of protecting second, but of attacking first.

Like Dalton, Neal McDonald, third in Assa Abloy, had planned for the American tactician Chris Larson's return, but he was surprised by the need for Spain's Guillermo Altadil to return home for family reasons. The experienced Mike Howard has been bought in. He has been given more amicable leave from Oracle Racing's America's Cup build-up in Auckland than Cayard. And further strength is restored by the return of Britain's Jason Carrington.

Carrington collapsed through fatigue and iron deficiency during the third leg from Sydney to Auckland and had to sit out the fourth as he returned home for treatment. He is now fit again.

Making four crew changes is Knut Frostad, skipper of djuice. Two of the replacements are from France, making four from that country overall, including the navigator Jean-Yves Bernot. The Norwegian, who took second place on the last leg, is also splashing out on seven new sails, including a main.

His Lawrie Davidson-designed machine still needs to show more authority, and he is still under pressure at home to deliver a good result for the most expensive sports sponsorship initiative in the country's history.

Volvo Ocean Race: Overall positions after four legs: 1 illbruck (J Kostecki) 29pts; 2 Amer Sports One (G Dalton) 22; 3 Assa Abloy (N McDonald) 20; 4 News Corp (J Fanstone) 19; 5 Tyco (K Shoebridge) 18; 6 djuice (K Frostad) 17; 7 SEB (G Krantz) 12; 8 Amer Sports Too (L McDonald) 7.