numbers when it resumed on June 26 in the Great Sound.

The reason: Weather.

The first two races of the five-race series were sailed under wicked condtions on June 13-14 off of Newport, Rhode Island. Several boats scheduled to participate didn't even venture out and others that did turned back.

And many boats which did brave the squalls regretted it, as blown out sails and damaged masts resulted in untold costs.

The Newport-Bermuda Race comprised stage three of the series but calm conditions delayed the arrival of several competitors. Many boats were not expected to land in Bermuda until the weekend, after the Onion Patch's conclusion.

As of Wednesday night, only ten of the Onion Patch participants, including Kirk Cooper and Temptress , had arrived.

Entries race as three-boat teams for the Onion Patch Trophy or individually for the Henry B. du Pont Trophy.

Bermuda's Kirk Cooper, co-skippering Temptress with Dr. Robert Shulman, has joined up with Ugly Duckling and Sforzando to from a New York Yacht Club team.

They were third after the two races, held as part of the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta.

Individually, they were ninth in the fleet -- and seventh in their class -- after the first race and 11th in the fleet after the second. Les Crane and Monterey were 33rd in the first race and 36th in the second.

Another RBYC-registered boat, Alix , skippered by Lewis Wallner, was 28th in the first race before withdrawing because of a damaged mast.

The Onion Patch, the only series on the US Eastern seaboard to include the challange of a ture blue waer ocean race, coincides with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta.

The current five-race format was first used in 1994 to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the RBYC. Since the Newport-Bermuda Race is the middle event of the series, all entries and crew must qualify for the ocean race.

Two years ago, 45 yachts raced the series, including 24 boats on eight teams.

Ironically, one of the top boats in the fleet then was Temptress -- the older version co-skippered by Cooper, now called Ugly Duckling .

The name of the series, of course, derives from Bermuda's onion history.

Introduced arond 1616, the Bermuda onion became a major export, with nearly 50 acres of land devoted to its cultivation by 1830.

Bermudian merchant seamen came to be known as "onions'' while the Islands themselves were called the Onion Patch.