Two years ago this 60ft trimaran was a wreck with homeless people living in it, but yesterday it reached Bermuda for the fastest ever crossing in the Marion race by more than 12 hours.

Heartsease Laurus Roc passed the finish line at 5 a.m. yesterday, the first in a fleet of 75 to complete the 645 mile ocean crossing, and the champagne and beer passed across were a welcome gift for Lars Svensson?s crew.

Seven multihulls were granted permission to enter the race for the first time this year and set off from Buzzards Bay 22 hours later than their conventional monohull counterparts on Saturday morning.

And Svensson admitted that beating the monohulls was his main aim and one of the most pleasing aspects of his victory in the race to the line.

?We set ourselves a target of 55-60 hours and we achieved that,? said Svensson, a cardiovascular surgeon whose boat is named after a flower thought to help heart disease, Heartsease, and then Laurus Roc because of its similarity to the look of a seagull (Laurus means seagull in latin and Roc is a bird with a 16 pace wingspan named by Marco Polo).

?It is, of course, great to finish first over the line but it is especially pleasing to know we beat the monohulls despite the headstart.

?We are happy with the sail.?

The crossing was the first major undertaking for the vessel, formerly known as Paragon, which broke its mooring and was wrecked against the rocks in St. Maarten.

Svensson has worked on the boat for the last 20 months to get it into this immaculate condition, a process which included evicting homeless people, completely replacing the rusted interior and getting a new set of sails.

The hard work, particularly the last nine months since race organisers gave him a list of upgrades required to get the vessel into the Marion event, finally paid off yesterday.

?We are very grateful that they invited us to take part,? said Svensson, looking tired but happy on the dock of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club early yesterday morning just before cracking open the champagne.

?It is a great event and we would like to take part again.?

The crossing was devoid of major incident, aside from a man overboard incident involving crew member Mark Acton on Monday, some 15 foot waves and struggling to make it across the final stretch of water to the finish line due to a lack of breeze.

Acton?s rescue involved turning the boat around and his injuries were limited largely to a cut above his eye that was no match for surgeon Svensson?s talents.

?There was nothing really to worry about - it was a fun journey,? added Svensson.

?We made some good time. I think we covered 364 nautical miles in a one day stretch but we also had 18 hours where there was so little wind that we just went in all directions, I think including backwards.

?It was a fun race, all the crew enjoyed it.?

Now the vessel has been well and truly tested, it?s next adventure will be the Marblehead to Halifax race followed by the Around Long Island race and then a return to St. Maarten.