Sailing/ Sovereign's Cup: Mostly steady if light airs made for fine racing conditions off the Old Head of Kinsale yesterday for day two of Sovereign's Week. There were some overnight changes to the leaderboards in four key classes, but at the halfway stage in the event the overall stakes remain wide open.

One major upset to form came from Colm Barrington and Flying Glove, who produced one of the least inspiring results - much to the quiet satisfaction of many rival crews - and turned the results of Class Zero into open season.

Leading that pack is, unsurprisingly, Eamon Conneely's Patches, the Galway Transpac 52. But even this boat, the largest boat competing, is not getting a clear run at dominating the event.

While the opening day saw Patches and Flying Glove score a win and a second place each, yesterday was the turn of Paul Hyde and Simon Coveney's Dark Angel, that replaced Barrington as the main challenger to the jockeyed-up TP52.

Dark Angel now lies joint second overall with Flying Glove, both trailing Patches by four point, while the single-race discard becomes available for each entry's worst race result after Race Six this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's results for Class One ended in the protest room until late that night as efforts went on to resolve the results from Race Two.

Anthony O'Leary's Antix and Eamon Crosbie's Voodoo Chile are locked in near-mortal combat for the lead of their division, and a race-management error failed to finish the pair as they led their fleet across the finishing-line.

With Peter Beamish's Aztec 2 in close contention for that race, all three ended up in the protest room ashore to resolve the result.

O'Leary emerged overall leader with Crosbie a close second, and their duel continued yesterday when both had a win and third place, and Class One remains unchanged with Antix leading from Voodoo, now with a two-point advantage.

Aztec 2 continues to snap at the leaders' heels, though a six-point margin will be hard to overcome.

Meanwhile, in Class Two, the Howth Yacht Club grip on the overall top five places on the opening day was lost when Barry Cunningham's Dún Laoghaire Motor YC entry Dick Dastardly moved into the overall lead in the largest class of the 155-strong event.

A fourth and 21st for Patrick Gregory's Elan 31 Benola, the previous overnight leader, dropped him to fifth overall, though this afternoon's discard will fix much of this damage if today's results produce some top-three placings.

Finally, a meeting of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association to discuss plans for next year's Commodore's Cup team has been postponed pending an announcement from Royal Ocean Racing Club regarding class bands.

There have been strong indications that, following pressure from the Solent region especially, the fleet will be restricted to exclude large yachts from the competition in a bid to preserve its Corinthian ethos. Such a move might prevent the TP52 Patches or Ger O'Rourke's Cookson 50-footer due for launch next month from taking part.

There is speculation too that the handicap bands for the mid-sized boats might be altered, thus affecting Flying Glove.