Bermuda's Paula Lewin has leap-frogged her arch rival Betsy Alison to regain her place at the top of the sailing world.

The Women's Match Race Rankings, just released by the ISAF, show Lewin in first place, clear of American Alison by 644 points.

As expected, Lewin's victory in the Osprey Cup, in St Petersburg, Florida, two weeks ago, was enough for her to overhaul Alison's 30-point lead and go into the New Year as the number one.

Lewin, the first Bermudian to top the world rankings in any sport, has also leapt up to number 13 in the overall match race rankings, which includes men, ahead of names such as former world number one Russell Coutts, of New Zealand.

The rankings are calculated on a formula which takes results from the last three years into consideration. As Lewin and Alison have been the top two for the past two years, they have opened up a gap of over 1,800 points between themselves and the chasing pack.

It caps the 27-year-old's best-ever year, in which she completed an unprecedented Grand Slam of major events in the USA, winning the Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis, the International Women's Match Race Championship in Marblehead, Massachusetts, as well as the Osprey Cup.

Lewin, who sails with her all-Bermudian crew of Lisa Neasham, Leatrice Roman and her twin sister Peta, can now relax and bask in the glory of being world number one for six months. The next major event on the match racing calendar, the Santa Maria Cup, is not until June 2 next year.

WORLD TOP 20 ISAF WOMEN'S WORLD MATCH RACE RANKINGS Events Pts 1 Paula Lewin (BER) 11 9054 2 Betsy Alison (USA) 10 8410 3 Nadine Stegelwalner (GER) 12 6596 4 Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NETH) 10 6362 5 Dorte Jensen (DEN) 6 6195 6 Marie Klok (DEN) 12 5770 7 Susanne Madsen (DEN) 12 5517 8 Shirley Robertson (GBR) 7 5487 9 Christine Briand (FRA) 4 4695 10 Marie Bjorling (SWE) 6 4361 11 Cordelia Eglin (GBR) 4 4227 12 Dru Slattery (USA) 6 3533 13 Annette Strom (DEN) 4 3345 14 Cory Sertl (USA) 3 3263 15 Helena Strang (SWE) 9 3063 16 Sandy Grosvenor (USA) 6 2726 17 Elena Nikolaev (RUS) 5 2591 18 Aisling Bowman (IRL) 4 2574 19 Lotte Pedersen (DEN) 8 2508 20 Liz Walker (GBR) 4 2310 ISAF WORLD OVERALL MATCH RACE RANKINGS 1 Peter Gilmour (JPN) 12 12391 2 Chris Law (GBR) 12 11559 3 Gavin Brady (NZL) 12 11025 4 Bertrand Pace (FRA) 12 11015 5 Peter Holmberg (ISV) 12 10798 6 Markus Wieser (GER) 12 10549 7 Jochen Schumann (GER) 12 10238 8 Sten Mohr (DEN) 12 10081 9 Jesper Bank (DEN) 12 10021 10 Luc Pillot (FRA) 12 9738 11 Magnus Holmberg (SWE) 12 9640 12 Neville Wittey (AUS) 12 9286 13 Paula Lewin (BER) 11 9054 14 Tomislav Basic (CRO) 8 9009 15 Morten Henriksen (DEN) 12 8966 16 Georgiy Shaiduko (RUS) 12 8924 17 Francois Brenac (FRA) 12 8722 18 Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 12 8690 19 Russell Coutts (NZL) 11 8675 20 Mikkel Rossberg (DEN) 12 8647