Jeronimo looks to take a big scalp

SAILING/Round Ireland Race and Commodore's Cup: Two nights at sea have produced, as expected, a significant on-the-water lead for the largest entry in the BMW Round Ireland race on the West Coast this morning but a Dun Laoghaire entry, less than half its size, is reckoned to be a serious challenger for the handicap lead at the Fastnet Rock.

New Zealand's entry rounded the Fastnet Rock off the Cork coast 24 hours and 15 minutes after leading the fleet off the Wicklow start line on Saturday.

Check-in times rounding the Fastnet Rock - which will be available this morning - will be the key to finding the handicap leader as the boats head north up the west coast.

If Konica Minolta is to beat a sub-three-day time and establish a new race record she needs to be back in Wicklow by tomorrow at 4pm.

A 100-foot, she towers over her opposition but Niall Dowling's 42-foot J133 Jeronimo remains unfazed. Dowling made really good work of the light conditions inshore all the way along the 100-mile South coast stage of the 704-mile race.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club entry, with 1996 winner Michael Boyd on board, is making an impressive debut.

Other front-runners, including Minnie the Moocher (Anthony Richards), Solune (Jean-Phillipe Chomette) as well as Limerick's Sydney Hobart winner Chieftain/Altana (Ger O'Rourke), were expected to sail a close hauled course to the Rock and be there by midnight last night.

On handicap reckonings Jeronimo had until 4am this morning to make the Fastnet Rock and become the handicap leader for the overall prize. Minnie the Moocher needs to be round at 2.30am. Chieftain had to round by 10.10pm last night.

The two Volvo 60 entries, Lyons solicitors and Spirit of Kilrush, needed to round by 8pm last night to become handicap leaders.

Calculating interim handicap positions, however, in this race continues to be notoriously unreliable as the only times are called in by radio to a series of check-in points at coastguard stations. Some boats call in late, some early and some even forget. The situation is barely improved this year by the organisers' efforts at satellite tracking devices fitted to boats.

From the start front-runners benefited from the decision that the wind was going to shut off at the coast and went offshore to get through the high pressure ridge moving west and into the north east breeze on the other side of it.

By this morning that appeared to have worked well - Anthony Richard's on Minnie the Moocher, a 38-footer, was one of the skippers to employ this tactic and yesterday morning he could see much bigger boats such as the 50-foot Chieftain and the 60-foot Solune about a mile off Minnie's beam.

The smallest boat in the fleet and the 2004 handicap winner, rechristened Teng Tools for the 2006 circumnavigation and skippered by Eamon Crosbie, is defending its title but was not expected to make his mandatory check-in at the Fastnet until some time this morning keeping her in the overall running as the fleet pass the halfway stage today.

There have been no retirals in the 39-boat fleet so far.