The Sydney to Hobart is experiencing one of it's greatest ever line honours battles, with the four Australian supermaxis all still in contention almost a full day after the race started.
While great rivals Wild Oats XI and Comanche swapped the lead several times over Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, Black Jack and InfoTrack stayed on their hammer.
After 23 hours of racing Comanche held a three nautical mile lead over Black Jack, which had both InfoTrack and Wild Oats XI within a mile of her.
Both crew and officials said it was rare to have such a close four-way tussle for the lead.
"We've been in close races with Comanche before, but we've never been in such a close race with four of us," said Wild Oats XI crewman Chris Links.
Cruising Yacht club of Australia commodore Paul Bellingham added: "I think what it shows is the way the boats are configuring now, they are good in all conditions."
Comanche wasn't able to pull away from the other boats when the winds were at their strongest late on Wednesday, when conditions appeared most in her favour.
With the wind dropping on Thursday, lighter air specialist Black Jack loomed as a real threat.
Comanche's 2017 race record mark of one day nine hours 15 minutes 24 seconds looks safe with the first boats not expected to finish until well into Friday morning.
The line honours winner needs to cross the line before 2215pm (AEDT) Thursday to set a new record..
The battle for handicap honours was also expected to take many twists and turns over the next couple of days, as the fleet sought to avoid falling into patches of little or no wind.
'We could end up with a bit of a parking lot," Bellingham said.
"It's going to be a real intriguing cat and mouse game over the next 24 hours."
All but four of the 85 starters were still at sea.
Meanwhile, racing will take a back seat for a brief period later on Thursday when there will be a tribute paid to the six sailors who died in the storm-lashed 1998 edition.
At 1700 (AEDT) radio relay boat official David Kellett will repeat the words spoken by then CYCA commodore Hugo van Kretschmar at the Hobart dockside memorial service which followed the 1998 race.
Van Kretschmar told the service: "Mike Bannister, John Dean, Jim Lawler, Glyn Charles, Bruce Guy, Phil Skeggs.
"May the everlasting voyage you have now embarked on be blessed with calm seas and gentle breezes.
"May you never have to reef or change a headsail in the night.
"May your bunk be always warm and dry."
Bellingham felt reiterating that message was appropriate.
"'It's respectful, it's a little bit understated. The sailors seem to appreciate that, so I think we've got it right," he said.
