final race at the Etchells World Championship in Brisbane, Australia.

The Bermudian crossed the line 17th in his chartered craft Morning Glory with a time of two hours, 20 minutes, 49 seconds, enabling him to improve from 29th to a final overall placement of 24th.

Australia's Colin Beashel grabbed the title in true champion-like fashion, winning the heat -- his second first-place finish of the week in 2:16:29.

Beashel led from the start to win over countryman Iain Murray (2:16:53) and Jud Smith (2:17:39) of the United States.

Overall, Ian Brown -- seventh yesterday -- was runner-up to Beashel with John Bertrand third as Aussies swept the leading spots.

Patton was due to make the day-and-a-half trek back to Sydney to return the boat and take some time to relax before returning to Bermuda on Thursday.

While pleased with the organising of the event and the experience, Patton indicated most of the competitors to be somewhat less cheerful with the race committee.

"It's being considered as a pretty chopped-up regatta,'' he said. "With 70 boats being called in the second race nobody was happy about that. And then they make us sit for an hour and a half in 30-knot breezes before calling the race.'' Notably, Patton was third among the foreign entries behind Americans Dennis Conner and Smith.

TIM PATTON.