and Barton Women's International Match Race Championship in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Lewin beat France's Christine Briand 2-0 in the best-of-three final after defeating Briton's Shirley Robertson, the top ranked woman in match racing, in a semi-final that went right to the wire.

The Bermudian, who had slipped to fourth in the lastest match race rankings but can expect to move up when the next ones are released later this month, showed great determination in coming from behind after losing the first two flights.

Briand had beaten Dru Slattery of the United States 3-1 to win her place in the final.

The tournament had gone straight into semi-finals after difficult wind shifts on Saturday forced the cancellation of the second round robin. In the first, Lewin lost only two of her 10 races -- to Slattery and fellow American Cory Sertl.

Current world champion Betsy Allison finished sixth following the consolation series to decide fifth to eighth places, while Roberston overcame Slattery 2-0 in the petite final.

Bermuda's Penny Simmons' has narrowly failed in his assault on a third IOD world title.

Simmons, who won the competition in 1984 and 1994, finished the regatta in San Francisco in second place, the same position he held down prior to Friday's final two races.

Sailing with an all Bermudian crew, wife Sasha, Stephen King, Harry Powell and Peter Terceira, Simmons finished the last two races in second and sixth place to edge out another former champion, Bill Widnall by the narrowest of margins -- .6 of a point. Overall victory went to San Francisco's Evan Dailey.