Yachting: Super maxis Konica Minolta and Skandia in power duel

Super maxi rivals Konica Minolta and Skandia were staging another thrilling duel this morning as the Sydney to Hobart yacht fleet encountered tougher conditions.

After relishing the favourable 20-knot northerlies on Monday night, the fleet found it tougher going as the wind swung round to the south, south-west as forecast.

After being well ahead of record pace on Monday night, the leaders slowed markedly in the early hours of the morning and fell behind Nokia's 1999 benchmarks.

The pacesetters entered Bass Strait around 2am and, about 7am, Nicorette reported south to south-westerly breezes of 25 to 28 knots and lumpy seas.

New Zealand's Konica Minolta took the lead from Victoria's Skandia late last night, but could not open up a decisive gap over the boat which beat it for line honours last year by just 14 minutes.

Just over 20 hours into the race, Konica Minolta led by just under a mile with the leaders around 60 miles south of Gabo Island.

The third super maxi, Nicorette, was around 10 miles off the pace with 66-foot AAPT another four miles astern.

Nicorette's skipper Ludde Ingvall was ruing the valuable time lost yesterday when his boat's main running spinnaker was split in two and felt it had cost the boat six miles.

"We will never give up, we will see if we can keep up the speed and hunt them down," he said.

"We have made it hard for ourselves."

Among the early leaders in the battle for handicap honours was First National Real Estate, the new version of the boat with the same name which took overall victory last year.

Also up among the early leaders in the IRC category was Ray White Koomooloo, the overall winner way back in 1968.

The list of retirees swelled to eight as five more boats withdrew in the first ten hours of Monday morning.

Wiseman's Ferry broke a gooseneck, EZ Street reported steering problems, Quest Travelscene 66 suffered a broken rudder, KAZ pulled out with spinnaker damage and Delta Wing was returning to Sydney with an unspecified problem.

Kickatinalong was reported to be "considering options" after pulling into Bermagui with a torn mainsail.

More casualties were anticipated with the winds predicted to increase in strength later in the day.

- AAP