Danish-Australian 60-footer Nokia seemed to be on the way to a new record sailing time in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Monday, according to reports reaching here.

Nokia, a well-performed Whitbread round-the-world racer equipped with such hi-tech devices as water ballast tanks, scored a 16-nautical mile break over pre-race favorites Wild Thing and 1997 winner from Sydney Brindabella as the leaders started sailing down the Tasmanian east coast Monday afternoon.

Nokia is estimated, if things go well, to cross the Battery Point finishing line at the end of the 630-nautical mile race about 5am local time Tuesday morning (1800GMT Monday). That would smash by almost a day the old record of two days, 14 hours, seven minutes and 10 seconds, set in 1995 by German maxi Morning Glory.

Nokia was averaging 16.72 knots. Cruising Yacht Club of Australia vice-commodore Han Sommer believed it a world record for a bluewater classic.

The best average time in an Australian race was Bobsled's 14.84 knots in the 1993 Brisbane to Gladstone.

The fleet paused Monday to hear a message broadcast by Lew Carter, the chief radio operator on the radio relay vessel Young Endeavour, to commemorate the six sailors lost in last year's race.

Conditions this year were a bit better but still challenging, with 25-knot winds gusting to 40 knots and waves up to six meters in Bass Strait.

Torrential rain and poor visibility made sailing more difficult during the night.

Five boats have retired with mast damage but Sommer said he was delighted for so few problems this year. The extra training and new safety rules imposed after last year's tragedy had paid off, he said. (Xinhua)