Noonmark VI has handily won the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy based on provisional standings for the 47th Newport Bermuda Race.

A Swan 56 owned by Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, Noonmark finished off St. David's Head at 2.40 a.m. after experiencing more wind than the bigger boats that finished ahead of her.

The Gibbs Hill Division is for boats with mostly professional crews and amateur crews that want to sail against them.

As the mostly English Noonmark crew of 16 celebrated at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club marina soon after dawn yesterday, the 48-foot Carina, finished at 6.55, more than 50 miles ahead of the next boat in her class, Class 3 St. David's Lighthouse Division.

The most experienced Bermuda Race boat in history (this is her 19th race since her first in 1970, which she won), Carina appears to have a lock on the competition between boats in the 45-55 foot range. To further emphasise her achievement, she was the 21st boat to finish in the 103 starters in the St. David's Light Division, beating dozens of larger, higher-rated boats.

Carina represents the Cruising Club of America, whose commodore, Sheila McCurdy, is the daughter of the boat's designer, James A. McCurdy.

Other finishers yesterday morning included three boats in the Cruiser Division, Clover III,Nirvana, and Angel.

A Swan 56, Clover III beat the two 80-plus footers to the finish and leads them by large margins on corrected time. Another 36 boats are in this division for cruising boats and sailors who sail in a somewhat more leisurely fashion than the racers in the Gibbs Hill, St. David's Lighthouse and Open Divisions.

It remained to be seen yesterday whether Carina wouldsurvive the duel between three boats in Class 1 for 35-40 footers?

They are two-time St. David's Lighthouse Trophy winner Sinn Fein, her Cal 40 sistership Belle Aurore, and the Peterson 38 Lindy.

Early yesterday morning, all three boats were within a mile or two of 130 miles from the finish, with Sinn Fein farthest to the west.

The boats were averaging more than seven knots and were expected to finish yesterday evening.

With 144 of the 183 starters still racing yesterday, anything could still happen regarding results.

But Noonmark VI's success indicated that as far as overall standings go, this is a small-boat Bermuda Race.

With a rating under the Offshore Rating Rule that was second lowest in the 13-boat Gibbs Hill Division, she still won very easily.

After the big boats finished soon after dawn on Monday morning, the 72-footer Rán held the corrected time lead for 19 hours until Noonmark VI finished, easily beating Rán and the other Gibbs Hill boats on corrected time. Her victory margin over second place Snow Lion, owned by Larry Huntington of the Cruising Club of America, was a startlingly large two hours, 32 minutes.

Noonmark enjoyed strikingly different conditions than the bigger boats, which had periods of calm and a relatively tranquil time throughout, even in the usually unsettled Gulf Stream.

The boat's racing skipper, Mike Gilburt, said there was more wind in the early part of the race than had been predicted.

"That's good for us because this is a good boat in a breeze when we're close reaching, which is what we did for most of the race until we took two tacks on the beat around the reef to the finish."

The passage through the Gulf Stream had its surprises, too.

"The current wasn't as strong as we expected, and we had black squalls lasting two and a half hours, with 30 knots of wind and torrential rains."