the slowest.

As expected, Alexia crossed the finish at St. David's Light yesterday morning to claim line honours in the 41st biennial regatta. She was followed nearly three hours later by Sayonara , with a relative unknown, Trader , crossing the line some six hours after that.

Defending champion Boomerang arrived just before 6.00 p.m. last night.

That's the good news. The bad was that Alexia completed the 635-mile crossing in 90 hours, 56 minutes and 16 seconds, the slowest race since Tenacious did it in 105:02:46 in 1978.

Twenty years later, Alexia had been expected around 5.00 a.m. yesterday but, typical for this race, didn't arrive until 10.16 a.m. Bermuda time.

"It was slow,'' said beaming owner Alberto Roemmers when asked about the trip. "But it's a wonderful sensation.'' Roemmers and Alexia were here for the 1996 race -- and were the fourth boat across the line, arriving in 61:36:58. Of course that was the year Boomerang finished in under 58 hours to set the record.

Despite all the talk of breaking Boomerang's mark, it became apparent after the first day that Mother Nature wasn't going to co-operate. The only hope was that boats would avoid the ignominy of the slowest race since it moved to Newport fulltime in 1936, the 121:13:12 by Ventura in 1960.

"It was a very hard race,'' said the boat's Canadian captain, Gian Ahluwalia.

"Then when we heard after the first radio check that we were leading, it got very tense.'' Here's how long the race was: Ahluwalia and other crew members ran out of cigarettes, although they quickly made up for lost puffs after docking at the RBYC early yesterday afternoon.

Other slower boats, some of which are not expected to arrive by the weekend, may have more serious concerns, like running out of food and water.

"It was a slow, slow race,'' said Joey Allen, a veteran crew member aboard Sayonara . "We were out there a long time.'' Sayonara , owned by Larry Ellison and skippered by Craig Dickson, did take a pretty big prize of its own, however: By finishing second, they clinched the Maxi World Championship over Alexia .

The difference for Alexia , as is usually the case with any winner, came with the course plotting, this time by John Danly and Ed Adams.

"We had some very good navigators and plotters on board,'' said Roemmers.

"They consulted the weather information, the water temperature, all the data at our disposal, and it worked.'' The strategy? "I think by and large we just had stronger breeze,'' said Danly.

There was more to it, of course. While most of the fleet got swept east of the Rhumb line, Alexia hung tough.

"We wanted to stay west of the competition and then pretty much stayed east of the Rhumb line all the way down until passing through the Gulf Stream and then got to the right hand side later on, trying to stay in the breeze towards Bermuda,'' said Danly.

Alexia was expecting a fresh southwest breeze from there -- only it didn't happen. Like many of the 158 boats, they were becalmed and lost about half of the 60-mile lead they held overnight on Monday.

"Compared to a lot of boats, we knew our boat was better in light air,'' said Danly.

Shortly after berthing at RBYC, Roemmers accepted congratulations from RBYC commodore Bruce Lines. That's when the party began. Champagne showers and a round of Dark and Stormy's followed, with crew member Don Cowie the recipient of the traditional dunking.

TOP RACE TIMES Previous boats to have taken line honours in the Newport-Bermuda Race (average speed in parentheses): 1906 Tamberlane 126:06:00 (5.3) 1907 Dervish 89:00:00 (7.5) 1908 Verona 100:19:30 (6.7) 1909 Amorita 78:19:00 (8.5) 1910 Vagrant 90:42:00 (7.4) 1923 Memory 112:18:45 (5.9) 1924 Memory 102:31:21 (6.4) 1926 Dragoon 118:06:45 (5.6) 1928 Rugousa II 103:13:48 (6.4) 1930 Yankee Girl II 98:29:30 (6.7) 1932 Highland Lights 71:35:32 (8.8) 1934 Vamarie 75:33:32 (8.7) 1936 Vamarie 114:50:30 (5.5) 1938 Baruna 91:05:42 (7.0) 1946 Baruna 119:03:05 (5.3) 1948 Baruna 87:09:45 (7.3) 1950 Bolero 75:32:09 (8.4) 1952 Royono) 97:16:28 (6.5) 1954 Bolero 108:55:04 (5.8) 1956 Bolero 70:11:37 (9.0) 1958 Good News 102:23:48 (6.2) 1960 Ventura 121:13:12 (5.2) 1962 Northern Light 80:46:32 (7.9) 1964 Stormvogel 92:10:15 (6.9) 1966 Kialoa II 105:02:41 (6.0) 1968 Odine 83:12:35 (7.6) 1970 Odine 87:03:47 (7.8) 1972 Robin 80:15:15 (7.9) 1974 Odine 67:52:22 (9.4) 1976 Tempest 88:16:20 (7.2) 1978 Tenacious 105:05:46 (6.0) 1980 Bumblebee IV 70:07:45 (9.1) 1982 Nirvana 62:29:16 (10.2) 1984 Boomerang 82:11:50 (7.7) 1986 Condor 90:46:47 (7.0) 1988 Congere 87:24:08 (7.3) 1990 Boomerang 87:20:01 (7.3) 1992 Boomerang 72:19:29 (8.8) 1994 Windquest 72:15:09 (8.8) 1996 Boomerang II 57:31:50 (11.0) 1998 Alexia 90:56:16 (6.9)