in celebration after a pulsating victory over Paul Cayard in the Omega Gold Cup finals yesterday in Hamilton Harbour.

Coutts, the reigning world match racing champion added another trophy along with a cheque for $30,000 to his mantle and bank account in coming out on top in this tense, see-saw battle that saw the pendulum constantly swinging in either man's favour.

"It was a tough one because we were definitely struggling out there,'' said Coutts, "Earlier on in the day we had no speed. Basically we were giving them races, races we should have won and in the last two races we finally started to get it together.

"After the first two races we said to ourselves, `What the hell are we going to do', Paul was sailing faster and better. We wondered how did Peter Bromby sail the boat in these conditions and set it up much like that.'' The Kiwi consistently got the jump on Cayard at the starts, forcing him over the line early on two occasions and drawing a similar amount of penalties on his adversary, but the American and his three-man crew of Josh Belske, Steve Erickson and John Kostecki displayed superior boat speed and handling, making each race extremely close, with all being decided by less than 20 seconds.

Said Cayard, who downed world number one Chris Dickson 3-1 in the semifinals, said: "The crew worked real well and I can't complain about anything. We just came up a little short.

"I've raced Russell and Dickson a lot and he's (Coutts) sailing well right now. Things go up and down. I'm not disappointed. I've done a lot of races down here against all the top guys and I feel like I've sharpened up quite a bit.'' A key point in the series came in the second race where Cayard was assessed two penalties, one before the start and the other during the first leeward leg when the course umpire adjudged Cayard's spinnaker to have made contact with his opponent's boat, thus impeding his progress.

Cayard, seen voicing his disagreement with the latter call, was able to make one of his penalty turns on the second windward leg and maintain his lead.

However, he could not create enough of a gap to make the other before Coutts edged across the finish five seconds in front.

The result opened the door for Coutts, then in jeopardy of going 2-0 down, and he took full advantage.

"We got too many penalties one way or the other, and that's ultimately my fault,'' said Cayard, who nevertheless made amends this time around after being bounced in the first round last year. "Even though I may not have been in the wrong I shouldn't have made it so close that they gave me the penalties.'' "The first one I got at the start was my fault, the second one was bad. I would comment like Peter Bromby on that one.'' This was a reference to the previous day during the quarter-finals when Bromby was assessed a disputed penalty on the penultimate leg of the fifth and final race. Ironically, they were both racing Coutts and the decisions were handed down by chief umpire John Doerr, a former rules advisor to New Zealand's challenge for the America's Cup.

But full marks went to Coutts and his crew of Peter Evans, Warwick Fleury and Lars Linger, who came out a 3-2 winner in that series with Bromby, swept past Dutchman Roy Heiner 3-0 to gain a berth in the final and then came from a 2-1 deficit to upend Cayard, who obviously had a good read on the wind shifts and appeared almost unbeatable early on.

"I feel very lucky...it could have gone either way,'' said Coutts, who will jet off to participate in a regatta in Europe before taking a much needed vacation in the Caribbean. "I thought he (Cayard) sailed the boats pretty fast though he may have been a bit off judgment at the starts. I think they had excellent tactics all around the course and very good speed.'' In comparing yesterday's triumph to the one in 1990 where he bested Peter Gilmour for honours, Coutts said that this one was particularly gratifying.

"In '90 (Peter) Gilmour just had a bad day, this one we really had to pull ourselves out of the card. We were big-time struggling, so I believe this was a better result.'' For his efforts, Cayard received $15,000 while Dickson earned $8,500 after easing by Heiner ($6,300) 2-0 in the Petit Final for third place.

Rounding out the top eight finishers were Eddie Warden-Owen ($4,750) in fifth, Bromby ($4,250) sixth, Ed Baird ($4,000) and Jorg Diesch ($3,500) eighth.

RUSSELL COUTTS -- Second Omega Gold Cup triumph.

HIGH ON AN OCEAN BREEZE -- New Zealand's Chris Dickson (9) battles Paul Cayard (7) of San Francisco during the semifinals of the Omega Gold Cup yesterday in Hamilton Harbour. Cayard defeated top-ranked Dickson 3-1 in their best-of-five series only to go down 3-2 against another Kiwi Russell Coutts in the finals.