Hampshire yachtsman Lawrie Smith has sold his W60, which was named Silk Cut in the last Whitbread Race, to Swedish skipper Gunnar Krantz.

The yacht, believed to be worth in the region of £500,000, will be used for training and corporate hospitality purposes as Krantz, who was skipper of fourth-placed Swedish Match in the 1998-99 Race, raises a campaign for the Volvo Ocean Race, starting from Southampton in September 2001.

"All the W60s are very good boats but this one, we know, is well built, fast and available so we decided to buy it as a stepping stone in building our campaign," said Krantz, who sailed with Smith on board Intrum Justitia in the 1994/95 race.

After having her shark livery stripped and replaced with a plain white hull, the boat left Southampton Water's Hamble Yacht Services last weekend and headed for Gothenburg and in the next few months will be based in Stockholm.

Like Smith, Krantz is looking to commission a designer for his next VOR60 but would neither confirm nor deny signing up with Bruce Farr, who in the past has designed virtually all the W60s.

Smith's Southampton-based syndicate is also looking ahead to the next race and had no hesitation in selling when the offer from Krantz materialised.

"It enables us to concentrate on the next campaign more fully because running a boat takes up valuable resources," said a spokesman for Team Lawrie Smith, who's plan to secure sponsorship for the next race are said to be well advanced with agreement imminent.

Silk Cut still holds the record as the fastest monohull in the world after she covered 449.1 miles in one 24 hour period in the second leg of the last Whitbread Round the World Race. She was designed by Bruce Farr and built by McConaghy Boats in Sydney in 1997.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.