skippers in the Newport-Bermuda Race.

Lead boats in the 41st biennial trans-Atlantic crossing were expected to cross the finish line at St. David's Light around dawn this morning, nearly four days after leaving Rhode Island with great fanfare and high expectations.

In a year many were predicting Boomerang's record would fall after only two years, the fleet of 161 were met with becalmed conditions and as of yesterday afternoon were still between 116 and 385 miles from the Island.

Line honours were expected to go to Alexia , the so-called United Nations maxi because of its Great Britain registry, Argentinian owner (Alberto Roemmers), Canadian captain (Gian Ahluwalia) and crew that includes four Americans, four New Zealanders, a Spaniard and a South African.

Through yesterday, Alexia had averaged 7.4 knots -- easily the best of the fleet -- and with more than 100 miles to go, officials were last night predicting she would arrive just before 5.00 this morning. If so, she would have an elapsed time of nearly 90 hours, the slowest winning time since Condor in 1986.

Just behind Alexia are a host of other high-performance vessels, including Boomerang , Deep Powder , Morning Glory , Rima and Sayonara .

The same Boomerang traversed the 635-mile course two years ago in just under 58 hours.

The fleet got a break from Mother Nature late on Sunday, with winds shifting to the northeast at 17 knots. By yesterday morning, however, they were northwest at 5-10 knots.

Alexia is also in the hunt for the Lighthouse Trophy, which goes to the winner on corrected time. Boomerang pulled off the rare double two years ago.

Hanging tough with Alexia in the race for the Lighthouse is Emily a Custom 44 skippered by Ed Gaynor.

Conditions have taken their toll on the some of the slower cruisers in the race. For instance, one boat -- Dragonsbane -- is not expected in until Sunday and nine have an ETA of Saturday.

Of the Bermuda skippers, Kirk Cooper, aboard Temptress , Robert Mulderig ( Starr Trail ) and Dr. Colin Couper ( Brigadoon VI) are doing well, with the three expected in port within hours of each other late on Wednesday, according to reports from the communication vessel, Rainbow .

Starr Trail has dropped out of the top three in the cruising division after leading through Sunday.

Les Crane's Monterey is expected to arrive early on Thursday, followed by Steven Vestbirk's Defiant on Friday.