Honolulu Hawai`i (July 5 1999) -- Roy E. Disney's new Pyewacket maxi sled sailed a record-tying 337 miles in the past 24 hours, but one of the two smallest crews with one of the smallest boats ever to sail the Transpacific Yacht Race was leading everybody Monday as good winds continued to blow the fleets along at a possible record pace.

Two Guys On the Edge, a Sonoma 30-footer from Waikiki Yacht Club with Les Vasconcellos and Bruce Burgess aboard, logged 182 miles at an average speed of 7.6 knots. It passed two Cruising division entries - Kim Stebbens' 41-foot Hurricane and Bob Pace's 46-foot Esprit - for the overall lead as it neared the midway point to Hawai`i with 1,266 nautical miles to go. Esprit was next at 1,274, two miles in front of Hurricane.

Two Guys is in the new Doublehanded division, along with Vapor, from Long Beach, which at 25 feet is the smallest competitor ever and has been out of radio contact from the start. They started alongside eight larger Cruisers last Tuesday off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

How long Two Guys' lead lasts may depend on when Pyewacket and the other big boats that started four days later appear on the horizon. Pyewacket still trailed the rival maxi sled Zephyrus IV by two miles but equaled the 24-hour run set by Mike Campbell's turbo sled Victoria in the record-smashing 1997 race. Victoria is now sailing as Front Runner under charter to Lou Grasso and Craig Lyons.

Disney told KSSK radio in Honolulu Monday that Pyewacket and Zephyrus IV were back on the same track within sight of each other. Both had already overtaken all but two of the smaller monohulls that started one day ahead of them. Scattered boats reported winds of 16 to 22 knots.

One boat dropped out Monday. Manouch Moshayedi's 50-foot M-Project from Bahia Corinthian YC reported a broken rudder post at 11 o'clock Sunday night and said it was returning to Newport Beach under power. It expected to reach port at 6 Tuesday night.

Earlier, Two Guys was farther south than any other boat and was seen as going too far out of its way to avoid the Pacific High, the light-wind zone that is farther north than usual this year. But it altered course northward to improve its position and was sailing in following winds of 17 knots. Dan Doyle, a Hawai`i real estate developer who owns the boat, was unable to sail because of business pressures and was delighted to learn it was leading.

"No kidding," he said. "Good for them."

Photos of the starts, e-mail from boats, daily position reports, crew lists and other information are available on the race web page.