Race had reached the Island by yesterday evening.

By 5.00 p.m. yesterday, 48 of the 103 starters had crossed the finishing line, six had retired and a further 12 had been sighted on the horizon from the race organisers' vantage point near St. David's Lighthouse.

And it looked increasingly likely that US boat Dakota , skippered by Doug Ely, would take the first overall prize.

Although the 51-foot sloop Temptress , with four Bermudians among skipper Richie Schulman's crew, was first over the line on Tuesday morning, the overall first place is awarded on a corrected time basis.

And Dakota , although it was the fourth boat to finish some five hours after Temptress , was last night still holding onto the lead.

After adjusted times had been calculated, Dakota's time was three days, 11 hours, 26 minutes and 18 seconds, just four minutes and six seconds better than Schulman's second-placed boat.

Colin Couper, skipper of Babe , the first Bermuda boat to finish, reckoned the electronic navigation his crew had decided to use, had been a great help.

"The first couple of days, it was quite cloudy, so the celestial navigators did not have the number of sights they might have hoped for,'' said Dr.

Couper. "It was easier for us to know exactly where we were.'' The performance of his crew and the smooth passage of his 46-foot sloop had not been a surprise to Couper.

Babe crossed the finishing line at 4.57 p.m. on Tuesday and so was the fifth boat to complete the 645-mile crossing from Marion, Massachusetts, and last night lay fourth in the corrected time rankings.

"I'm more pleased than surprised,'' said Couper. "We knew we were doing quite well because the only boats around us were the bigger ones from classes A and B.

"We had a very good ride down and the conditions were excellent except for one or two patches when we didn't get enough wind.'' Couper had hoped for more of a boost than he got when he reached the livelier waters and weather of the Gulf Stream.

"We did not get as much of a ride from the Stream as we had anticipated, though there was plenty of wind there.'' The next Bermuda boat in on Tuesday night was Warren Brown's 61-foot sloop War Baby , the biggest boat in the race, sailing in class A, for the largest boats using celestial navigation.

War Baby arrived at 8.03 p.m., more than a day outside the race record for the old longer, course, which she set in 1989.

Two hours and 12 minutes behind Brown was Buddy Rego, with his 41-foot sloop Tsumani , the third Bermuda entry to finish.

And yesterday, Paul Hubbard's Bermuda Oyster arrived home, finishing the race at 2.25 p.m., to leave her 44th in the overall standings and ninth in class C as of yesterday evening.

Six yachts retired from the race for various reasons.

Constantin Boden's Weetamo withdrew after losing its mast, apparently close to Bermuda, while Joseph Hughes' Winifred , Charles Detwiler's Intrigue and John Folino's Gosling all withdrew for reasons not known by the Race Committee.

Timothy Liveright's Che Vive also pulled out with mechanical problems and Richard Lilly jr.'s Stranraer , opted to motor into Bermuda after being stalled by light winds, because if their journey had been prolonged any more, they would have missed their flights home to the US, said race press officer Rich Healy.