The serious celebrations for the victorious Whitbread Round the World crew of the EF Language are guaranteed to start when the boat drifts to the dockside in Southampton. For the first time in the history of the race it has been won before the final leg has been sailed and yet it speaks volumes for the professionalism and winning attitude of EF's skipper Paul Cayard and his crew that they have pledged to finish, as they started, first across the line in the Solent, and to save the real festivities until the boat has finished.

Cayard and his crew of buoy racers have brought a whole new dimension to this final race in Whitbread colours, not just in their ability, which has brought them victories on Legs One, Three and Five, second on Six, and third on Seven, but in the whole approach to a race which had largely remained the domain of seasoned Whitbread veterans and offshore racers.

''We have really brought together a group of America's Cup class and Olympic sailors and cranked the whole game up. This race is no longer about adventure. The rabble rousing at the stop-overs is gone, and it's about serious work, and this is the leading edge,'' explains Cayard whose preparation for each leg has included a full week analysing the weather patterns and possibilities with Roger 'Clouds' Badham, the meteorologist who has worked extensively with him through all of his America's Cup campaigns.

It is no coincidence that the EF project is the biggest and best organised - and not just because they also have run a second, women's crew, EF Education, alongside the men's. The budget for the whole EF project is reported to be $20m, as against the $6m that it is estimated an 'off the shelf' single boat Whitbread campaign would cost, and for example the $10m spent by Gunnar Krantz's Swedish Match, which is now endeavouring to hold on to second place overall.

EF are the only team to have set up their own sail loft, with two sailmakers, in each stop-over port. Their back-up, as well as meteorologist Badham, includes three boatbuilders, a rigger, shore manager and secretary, two press officers and a director.

Uniquely rather than an embryonic Whitbread campaign seeking a sponsor, the The Swedish EF group's owner and founder Bertil Hult had identified the race as an ideal vehicle to promote his worldwide language learning and education business - not even just as a marketing tool, but as a focus for the 15,000 staff employed around the globe, and while the other sponsoring corporations involved in the race have been buttering up executives from other companies, EF have also been entertaining up to 700 of their staff at each stop-over.

Hult approached Johan Salen and Magnus Olsson, who raced on Intrum Justitia with Lawrie Smith on the 1993-4 Whitbread, and they grew the project together. When their chosen skipper, Smith, jumped ship to head up the Silk Cut British effort, Cayard was appointed and the American's style and approach differed sharply from the reserved, taciturn Smith.

Silk Cut tuned up alongside the EF Teams in Portugal before the race started and the sharp contrast in management was obvious. The Silk Cut crew described it as 'corporate' sailing, with constant rounds of meetings - they even reportedly suggested there were meetings to organise the next meetings.

Cayard's talents have overshadowed in most departments. While he openly admitted his induction into the Southern Ocean exposed the raw weaknesses, his ability to communicate the joys and the hardship via the daily e-mails, which have become the absolute lifeblood of the Whitbread's global media coverage, became almost as much of an asset as his ability to analyse the situations and call the plays. His strategies have been those of the major league grid iron coach while others have been running the pub football team.

Since he started sailing as an eight-year-old on a lake near San Francisco, racing pram dinghies at 9, and winning his first major championship at 13, he has moved through to success at every level. He has won the Maxi world cup, and in 1991 the World Championship for the America's Cup class for the Italians. He was tactician aboard Brava Q8, contributing a Fastnet race win to the Italian's victory in the Admiral's Cup in 1995.

He has taken time out from his home yacht club - St Francis YC's AmericaOne project, aiming to challenge for the America's Cup - which he has sailed in since 1983, to take part in the Whitbread, and admits that the victory is especially sweet: ''For me this ranks as one of the highest successes, if not the most important. It's a big deal as, for me, it was a new sector of the sport and, in terms of image and career, represented a big risk - to go out and race against the likes of Smith and Grant Dalton who've done it all five times before.

''I did imagine it would be a very tough challenge psychologically, but having six guys from the USA with me, one of whom I've sailed with for 20 years, guys who I've sailed a lot of America's Cup races with, and knew we could confront problems, I knew that when we were down they would do it for me, we could say 'OK we've seen this movie before' and they would do it for me.''

Just after half way round he recognised they could win outright: ''With five ninths of the race gone and a lead of 105 points I knew we could win it. From then on it was a case of managing the risk - losing the mast, or getting boats between us, now at least we can let it all hang out on the last leg.''

Cayard's management style has kept the crew working together for each other, he remarks that he has long since refined his style: ''I doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a big company or running a racing yacht there's a fine line between directing and suggesting when it comes to motivating and maximising performance.''

His Whitbread victory will raise his personal stock when it comes to seeking the $35m America's Cup budget for AmericaOne. Already having signed up Hewlett Packard, his is the only American campaign with major sponsorship in place. He remains uncertain whether he would come back and race in the subsequent round the world race - the Volvo Ocean Race Round the World 2001-2002. While the EF campaign is the benchmark this time around, he suggests it would have to be improved to win again. ''It's really the same old deal, maybe the budget wouldn't have to be 20% bigger, but there is a lot of sail development to be done and, for me, that would have to start in three or four months time. The capital costs don't need to be that much higher, but it would just be about operating longer. Conceptually having two boats is essential for testing and anyone serious would do well to get hold of two matched

boats like ours and get started now.''

The lack of ongoing two boat testing he believes was one of the downfalls for Silk Cut; ''We took a lot of the sail development work they did and kept it rolling and made some big gains in making some fast sails. Lawrie (Smith) made a couple of errors. The navigator/skipper partnership is the most important and he made the wrong choice, a pair of fourth places is not the best way to start off.''

While the legions of crews look for what to do next, Cayard, who regarded the Whitbread as time off from the AmericOne project, albeit with some valuable learning along the way, it will be time for a rest then back to the main job - winning the America's Cup - sailing's premier trophy which has eluded him, so far.