Not even famed uncle Walt could have provided a better script for Roy Disney's record-breaking fairytale finish in the 2002 Newport to Bermuda Race.

But the veteran skipper could probably have found a role for one of the illustrious movie studio's stunt actors after he and his crew were constantly tossed about during the rough 635-mile crossing.

While proving to be truly a diamond in the "rough", Disney's boat Pyewacket was able to shatter Boomerang's six -year-old record by three hours, 52 minutes and 28 seconds and also secure line honours in the ocean classic's new Racing Division.

Boomerang also bettered its previous best time of 57 hours, 31 minutes and 50 seconds set in 1996 but had to settle for second place, while Zaraffa led the Cruising fleet home in a corrected time of 58 hours, 25 minutes and 15 seconds.

Speaking onboard the sleek three-year-old 75 foot Reichel-Pugh maxi, nestled majestically at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RYBC) amid remnants of the previous night's celebrations yesterday, a relieved Disney basked in the glory of the moment.

"We always knew that we had the boat speed to make a run at the record," he said.

"We felt that if the conditions were right, the the boat was capable of it. But it would have been a lot nicer had we had the spinnakers up because this boat is basically oriented as a downwind boat.

"She (boat) comes from the west coast (US) and that's what we do a lot of over there - a lot of downwind sailing.

"We also do a lot of racing in Hawaii and Mexico and those are all downwind races.

"On the first morning, we were pretty much right with everybody else and then on the second morning we were a few miles behind Boomerang and Morning Glory, but on the next, we were ahead of both of them.

"I think that we were in a better part of the Gulf Stream, but you would not have wanted to be on the boat. It was fast and rough. The weather was actually amazingly good to us in terms of getting here in a hurry, but it was also very, very rough."

Disney also noted how his vessel excelled in the rougher conditions but acknowledged that the ride was not for the faint hearted.

"The Gulf Stream was pretty lumpy," added Disney. "However, this boat goes so fast through the waves that it's just so much rougher than in a conventional boat.

"We could have gone even faster but I think that we would have broken the boat. At one point we had 5.9 knots of current going with us in addition to the boat speed going through the water, so that's a tremendous lot of added speed over the ground.

"When the current is going one way and the winds are blowing in the opposite direction and the current's waves meet the wind's waves then they build what we term as square waves.

"And I can tell you that they certainly feel like square waves!"

Pyewacket is coming off a sensational string of victories on the Caribbean racing circuit and is also the current record holder of the Trans Pacific Ocean Race.

She has sailed in numerous regattas in Hawaii and the Mediterranean.

"We actually slowed down to basically keep everything in one piece and even then it was still terrible," he said.

"The boat took a wind dive off of a wave and the microwave door opened up and sent the inserted glass turntable inside flying across the floor.

"It was just brutal. The first time I came down (1982) was on a boat which I used to own (Shamrock) before I donated it to the US Navy and they renamed it (Enterprise) and invited me to sail along as a guest.

"That was the year when organisers were forced to postpone the race for two days because of a hurricane. It was also brutal then.

"But for the moment, I couldn't be more pleased and it's just amazing how things worked out for us.

"A few days before the start at Newport we were looking at the weather and more and more we were saying that this could be a record year because of the way the winds appeared to be going, but you never count your chickens before they hatch. We were all saying `boy, I hope the weather pattern holds' - and it did.

"We were also hoping to have a quicker start with the spinnakers up for a while, but for the first part of the race we didn't. The wind had eased so we were sailing with the jib close reaching.

"But the boat is pretty fast like that too."