Kaighn Smith took a large gulp of champagne yesterday morning, savouring the fruits of being the champion of the Cruiser/Racing Division in the 39th Newport to Bermuda Race.

Welcomed to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) by commodore Brian Billings, as a group of wide-eyed primary school children from the Gilbert Institute watched attentively, Smith and the seven members of his crew -- Turner Hansel, James Watson, Kaighn Smith, Jr., Robert Norton, Robert Watson, William Reed and Harry Madeira -- transformed his Swan 38 sailboat into a championship locker-room, spraying each other with the bottles of bubbly.

Smith, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was participating in his 11th Newport to Bermuda voyage, finally winning his first Lighthouse Trophy, given this year to sailboats in the Cruiser/Racing Division, and considered one of most coveted sailing prizes in the world.

The native of West Islip, New York, also happens to be commodore of the Cruising Club of America (CCA), one of the sponsors of this year's race.

"This is unbelievable,'' said Smith yesterday. "To be commodore and also win the Lighthouse Trophy, well, it's almost like you died and went to heaven.'' Smith invited the young school children to join the celebrations on board Gaylark but they declined.

The boat also won Class Eight honours, arriving in Bermuda after an elapsed time of 95 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds. Her corrected time was 53 hours, 46 minutes and 52 seconds. Gaylark crossed the finish line at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Although Smith believed he had a chance to win the Lighthouse Trophy on Tuesday night, he was given official confirmation early yesterday morning.

"Last night (Tuesday) I came over here and the television screen had Gaylark up there at number one and that was pretty exciting,'' said Smith. "I was pretty sure by then, but you have to wait for all the other guys to come in to make sure that their handicap hasn't taken over and they win. This happened to me before in one of the classes, I thought I won but we had to settle for second.'' Although Smith has won "every major ocean race'', including the Annapolis-Newport and the Halifax race from Marblehead, he said that winning the Lighthouse Trophy was his biggest moment in sailing.

"This is by far the top, this is the one that counts the most. You spend your sailing life thinking maybe you have a chance for this.'' The veteran skipper said the key to winning the trophy was the crew's experience.

"Believe me, the crew is what makes this boat go,'' he said. "I very rarely touch the helm. We added up the number of Bermuda races that the crew has been on and it amounts to 66 races so it shows what kind of experience counts.'' The race was the eighth Bermuda to Newport for Gaylark , with two second place finishes and a third in her class and the boat also has a fourth place finish in the fleet under her belt.

Smith also took time to defuse the controversy surrounding this year's race, a trophy-eligibility rule which prevented sailboats in the Racing Division to win the Lighthouse Trophy.

Francis Carter, skipper of the Bermuda entry Longobarda filed a protest over the issue on Monday night and the hearing is expected to take place this morning at 9 a.m. at the RBYC.

Even with the new rule, the 21-year-old Gaylark would still have captured the Lighthouse Trophy, but the changes could still have an affect on the Onion Patch Series, which ends with a pair of races tomorrow.

One of the reasons why skippers in the Racing Division are so upset is because they were notified of the rule changes only two weeks before the start of the Newport to Bermuda race.

"Yes, that's true and we very much apologise for that,'' said Smith. "That was a function not of the CCA or the race committee, it was a function of the US sailing owners' commitee getting together and not publishing the US sailing prescription for who could take the helm and whether professionals could be on board. That publication did not come out until mid-March and by the time we had our decision-making process it took just that long. So we literally could not send out that bulletin saying that we were going to have two trophies soon enough.

"We recognise the expectations that so many people had in the Racing Division, that they were not really going to have a chance to get the Lighthouse Trophy which, of course, is the premiere trophy certainly on the East Coast and I'm sure in the world.'' As of yesterday afternoon 137 boats in the fleet of 148 had arrived in Bermuda, with two Bermuda entries, Dillightful and Tamarugo still unnacounted for.

Parlay , one of the two Grande Voile entries, retired from the race yesterday.

At least one Bermuda boat, Morgans Cloud , skippered by John Harries, is expected to win Class 10 (non-spinnaker).

Other winners were Essence in the Grande Voile Division (Class One) and Conspiracy in Class Two, the overall winner of the Racing Division.

Winners in the Cruiser/Racing classes were Wonder (Class Three), Challenge IV (Class Four), Toscana (Class Five), Loose Cannon (Class Six), Froya (Class Seven), Gaylark (Class Eight) and Gamelan (Class Nine).

Halcyon was expected to take top honours in the doublehanded division of Class Ten.

Of the other Bermuda boats competing, Longobarda finished in 10th place in the Racing Division, Kirk Cooper's Alphida was eighth in Class Three and Jordy Walker's Jalapenos Dos finished sixth in Class Four.

Buddy Rego's Tsunami was a respectable sixth in Class Six and Les Crane's Monterey finished 10th in Class Eight. In Class Nine, Colin Couper's Vivace stood at 10th place.

KAIGHN IS ABLE -- Kaighn Smith, the owner and navigator of Gaylark , acknowledges cheers after arriving at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club yesterday.