with victory in the opening race in the Etchells class.

Lewin and her crew of Andrew Studdiford, Leatrice Roman and Lisa Neasham finished at the head of a fleet of 16, with Bermudian Scott Moore, for whom Peter Bromby is crewing this year, coming in second.

Henry Spingler of the US was third in the first of the six-race series, with Britain's Stephen Bailey, a strong challenger for the KF Trimingham Trophy 12 months ago, finishing fourth. Lewin's brother Andreas had to settle for fifth place and Tim Patton sixth. The two other keel-boat classes competing in the Great Sound, the J-24s and the International One Designs, both had two races yesterday.

Sailors in the latter compete for three trophies over the week: the first series of five races, which lasts until Tuesday, is for the Bermuda Race Week Championship A and a further collection of four races is for Norwegian Series B. The Vrengen Gold Cup is awarded to the overall winner of the combined series.

The Scandinavian team skippered by Urban Ristorp made an early claim for the Bermuda Race Week Championship with successive wins. Harry Powell, who has Bermuda's former IOD world champion Penny Simmons among his crew, picked up a second and third, to be tied for second with Bruce Dyson in the fleet of 10.

In the J-24s defending champion Michael Mountford, of Canada, struggled to a seventh and fifth in the first two of an eight-race series for the Gripper Trophy. British skipper Stuart Jardine and the USA's Frank Keesling enjoyed a win and a second apiece to lead the event by four and a quarter points.

Among the three dinghy classes involved in Race Week, only the Lasers were in competitive action yesterday, while both Comets and Snipes had a practice outing. At the time of going to press last night no results or information had been made available about the Lasers competition, in which Malcolm Smith is defending his title.