Sydney to Hobart line honours favourite Andoo Comanche has a handy but not decisive lead over her three supermaxi rivals.

After almost 18 hours of racing the three-time line honours winner was leading by around nine nautical miles from LawConnect.

The other two supermaxis, Black Jack and Hamilton Island Wild Oats, were a few miles further back.

The supermaxis were around race record pace on Monday night but dropped behind in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

However, the pace is expected to pick up again from around mid-morning when stronger winds from the north are forecast.

There was a sizeable gap of close to 40 nautical miles to the next group headed by the 80-foot Queensland based boat Stefan Racing.

Also In that chasing group were the Volvo 70 Willow, the 72-foot URM Group, and Tasmania’s 66-foot Alive, the 2018 overall victor.

The high quality contingent of TP52s were setting the pace in the battle for handicap honours.

Sydney based TP52 Celestial, which finished second overall last year, was leading the way followed by a number of similar length boats, American yacht Warrior Won, Gweilo and New Zealand’s Caro.

The fleet size remained at 107, with no further withdrawals overnight following the early retirements of Avalanche and Yeah Baby.

Avalanche pulled out with a broken bowsprit within two hours of the start and Yeah Baby was forced out with rudder damage.