American sailor Teddy Turner remained on course to capture this year's Charleston to Bermuda race title and was expected to cross the finish line off St.David's Head early this morning.

Turner, the son of broadcasting tycoon Ted Turner Sr, has led the biennial race from the very start onboard his 40ft Condor, Troika, and was last reported late on Tuesday night to be some 325 miles west of the Island.

Rex Conn's Alacrity, meanwhile, was reported to be trailing Turner in second place while Buddy Darby's 51 foot Hinckley, Solitude, has now moved into third position.

It was also learned yesterday that Bill Buice's Far Horizon had withdrawn from the 777 nautical mile ocean crossing race and was now making her way to Bermuda under mechanical propulsion.

Far Horizon now joins Susan Ford's J-Henry, John Flanagan's boat Sunami, Michael Kapp's Sabre 38 Ghost, Ken Sawyer's Lionhearted, Mike Finn's Kativa and Bob Turner's Kiva as the other casualties to drop out of this year's race which saw a total of 16 boats make it to last Saturday's start in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina.

"Troika and Alacrity remained in the lead as of last night (Tuesday) with about 325 miles remaining in the race," reported race communications director, Randi Olsen from Charleston yesterday.

"Both of those boats are expected to be in with improving wind conditions early Thursday (today) morning.

"As of midnight last night (Tuesday) when I talked to the last boat the winds were blowing out of the east and were beginning to go back to the north-east at 20 miles and hour and the were encountering seas at between six to ten feet. And they were beginning to do some very fast sailing."

The race is broken into several divisions: spinnaker, non-spinnaker, multi-hulls and classic yachts.

All boats will be scored according to their ratings with the Charleston to Bermuda race utilising the seconds-per-minute handicapping system based on previous performances

The Charleston to Bermuda race was first run in 1997 and David Sully became the inaugural winner.

American Rick Orchards currently holds the record for the fastest Charleston to Bermuda crossing. Orchard set the mark in 2001 when he completed the race course in 73 hours flat.

Bermuda's Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin got off to contrasting starts during yesterday's opening races of the 2003 Spa Regatta in Medemblick, Netherlands.

Bromby began solidly and completed day one of the regatta in second place after managing a first and a seventh place finish competing in the Star Class.

Current world number one Star Class champion, Iain Percy, of Britain led after the opening day. Local favourite, Serge Kats, of the Netherlands, remains in third spot.

Meanwhile, Lewin managed a disappointing 15th place during her opening race in the Yngling class.

However, the Bermudian bounced back in the second to finish fourth and remain within sight of the leaders.