Warren Brown could be Bermuda's best hope of success in the Marion-Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race which starts at lunchtime today -- but only if the wind blows hard.

Brown, a veteran of a remarkable 18 Bermuda races, is one of the most experienced skippers of the 107 who will set sail for the Island from Buzzard's Bay today.

He will be sailing his 61-foot sloop War Baby , one of the biggest and heaviest vessels in the race and the same boat in which he broke the course record on his one previous appearance in 1991.

On that occasion, the boats had to deal with a huge storm which whipped up seas of 30 to 40 feet and winds gusting close to hurricane force.

And Brown admitted yesterday his chances of doing equally well this time depended heavily on the weather.

" War Baby weighs 37 tonnes and if it gets quite breezy out there, then I'm sure we will do quite well,'' he said.

"But if it's very calm, then we will be waving goodbye to all the little, lighter boats going out in front.'' Despite his need for heavy weather, Brown was pleased for the sake of everyone in the race to see the disintegration of tropical storm Arlene.

"There will be a lot of smaller 30-foot boats out there and I don't think encountering a storm would be particularly pleasant for them,'' said Brown.

"It's a race, not a survival contest, and I don't think any good sailor welcomes a storm.'' Brown has been sailing since he was a seven-year-old boy and ocean racing for 50 years and the 69-year-old admitted that he regarded the Marion race as a pleasant, rather than an exciting experience.

"I enjoy meeting the other sailors and I enjoy the great hospitality we get here in Marion. I enjoy the racing and being competitive -- but I guess I don't get as excited about it as I did when I was younger,' he said.

Brown has made a habit of venturing into dangerous and remote seas.

"I go where not many other people go,'' he said. "I've been up 550 miles from the North Pole, watching out for the icebergs.

"And when I went to Campbell Island, south of New Zealand, I was the first boat they'd had coming in there in eight years.'' With all that experience, much of it with War Baby , a boat he has owned for 17 years, it is not too surprising that the 640-mile crossing from Massachusetts to the finishing line off St. David's does not appear a daunting challenge to him any more.

He and his crew, which includes Bermudians Roger Mello, John Wadson, Kevin Horsfield and navigator Scott King, as well as Jill Batty from England, will be competing in the celestial rather than the electronic navigation class and relying on the old-fashioned sextant and log to find their way.

They will be trying to catch eddies, warm currents of water, which will help to put a few knots on their speed as they head for Bermuda.

Brown said it would be easier for those using electronic navigational aids to find and follow the eddies.

But he added: "I don't think having electronic will make much difference, because it seems to me that most of those using it in this race are the less experienced navigators.

"It will be a great help to them in getting across, but to really benefit from it, you need to be a good, experienced navigator.'' Another of the five Bermuda skippers taking part in the race, David Roblin, said the remnants of Arlene could yet have an effect.

And that would not necessarily be a bad thing for him and his 45-foot sloop Lullaby .

"The swells the wind could bring might make it a rough passage,'' said Roblin.

"My boat is the biggest in the bottom class, so if it is rough we might have a better chance of doing well.'' Lullaby , which has recently been rerigged, will be crewed by Francis Carter, Julian Roderick and Jodi Roderick.

Roblin will team up with Paul Hubbard, who will race after successfully making a series of 11th-hour repairs to his boat Bermuda Oyster , and Buddy Rego with Tsunami , under the banner of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, in a bid to win the Ocean Spray Team Trophy for Bermuda.

Race press officer Rich Healey, after receiving the latest weather maps and heat-sensitive satellite pictures of the Atlantic, said he believed this would be a fast race.

"What's left of the storm is likely to bring strong winds and there is a big eddy north of the Gulf Stream which should help add up to four or five knots to their speed,'' he said.