The crew aboard Crescendo had absolutely no idea they had completed an impressive hat-trick of titles after crossing the Marion Bermuda Race finish line in St.David's yesterday.

Skipper Martin Jacobson and crew covered the 645-nautical mile voyage in an elapsed time of 111 hours, 32 minutes and 13 seconds shortly before 6 a.m. and were then stunned to learn they had just claimed class, overall and celestial line honors.

"Amazing," was the way one crew member summed it all up.

And so it was for a boat that had trailed Jonathan Brewin's Big Bear for most of the way until the latter retired from the race after tearing her mainsail in 20-25 knots headwinds, thus handing Jacobson and crew overall line honours on a plattar.

As a celestially navigated entry, the crew aboard Crescendo did not enjoy the luxury of tracking their rivals online or via radio which made their accomplishment all the more sweeter.

"We never saw any stars or planets, and we had to get our sun shots through the clouds.

"It was amazingly accurate," said Crescendo's navigator Jeremy Whitty. The Class B boat led the fleet out of Buzzard's Bay into open ocean and regained the lead for good after capitalising upon Big Bear's demise on the final leg of the race.

Victory, however, did not come without costs as Crescendo also damaged her mainsail in a 45 knot squall but managed to limp home with a safety-orange trysail as back up.

"The thunderstorms blew the hell out of us," added Whitty.

Also sipping champagne yesterday was the crew aboard Cetacea after the Sou'wester 59 claimed Class A line honours in an elapsed time of 113 hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds.