Leaders of the Newport-Bermuda Race were last night drifting agonisingly slowly towards the Island after being virtually becalmed by still conditions.

A high pressure sitting right over the Island meant that the maxi-yachts which looked set to smash the race record on Sunday night were still limping towards the finishing line at St. David's Lighthouse 24 hours later.

Early yesterday, it appeared that the winner of a tight, three-way battle between the maxi-yachts Sayonara , Sagamore and Boomerang would take line honours.

At 8.00 a.m. Sagamore , skippered by James Dolan, had her nose in front and was 45 miles from the finishing line, one mile ahead of Sayonara , with George Coumantaros's Boomerang a further two miles back. All three had been stalled in mirror-like sea conditions.

On Sunday morning, all three had been ahead of the pace needed to break Boomerang's race record of 57 hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds, set four years ago.

Overnight leader Sayonara , skippered by America's Cup veteran Chris Dickson of New Zealand, had averaged 12.23 knots during the first 54 hours, but covered just 75 miles in the following 24 hours after hitting the high pressure area.

The dramatic change in conditions, after winds had never dropped below 16 knots for the first two days, allowed some of the trailing smaller boats, many of whom were still enjoying 10-knot winds yesterday, to catch up.

And the go-slow scenario left the Lighthouse Trophy, which goes to the winning boat on corrected time, up for grabs to almost any boat which can pick its way through the pockets of still air.

Robert C. Twose's R-Pugh 66 Blue Yankee was closing in on the maxis yesterday and was just three miles behind Boomerang at 8.00 a.m., as were Frederic Detwiler's Andrews 70 Trader and Skip Sheldo's 65-footer Zaraffa .

Warren Brown's 61-footer War Baby made good progress and was 79 miles from the finish by 8.00 a.m. yesterday and had moved into the lead on elapsed time in class six. Buddy Rego's Hinano , 10 miles astern of War Baby was the next best-placed Bermuda boat.

The race communications vessel Geronimo reported that the wind 110 miles north of Bermuda was blowing at less than 10 knots and had become lighter as they sailed through 35 degrees north latitude.

Boats spotted coming over the horizon on Sunday night turned out to be unconnected with the race.