The sight of ecstatic sailors hugging each other, swapping high fives and being tossed into Hamilton Harbour amid spent bottles of champagne best described the euphoric scenes onboard Hank Hofford's 70 ft Santa Cruz ? the first boat to finish the 777 mile Charleston to Bermuda (C2B) Race off St.David's in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

Hofford, and a crew of 15 onboard ? included among them the two sons of US media guru Teddy Turner Sr and wife Susan Ford ? quietly manoeuvred across the finish line at St.David's Lighthouse at 3.45 a.m. on a corrected time of four days, six hours and 38 minutes ? some 12 hours outside the unofficial race record (73 hours) set by Richard Orchard's in 2001.

And although has yet to be officially declared as overall winner of the bienniel regatta on corrected time, yesterday's celebrations would not be muted in the least at the boat's dockside mooring at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC).

"These guys have consumed about a week's worth of liquor in about two hours. All of a sudden everybody started drinking Dark n Stormys and Heinekens," a victorious Hofford told amid wild and joyous scenes including being thrown in the harbour, pictured above.

"These guys have been awake for about 24 hours and they worked extremely hard to get here as fast as we could. It was a wonderful sail. The crew got along well and nobody had any disagreements. They all bonded really well."

At Press time last night, Australian James Wilmot's was expected to be the second entry to cross the finish line sometime today. The Swan 44 poses the greatest threat of bettering corrected time.

Hofford and crew figure they have some 34 hours on , meaning should the latter finish within that time period, then they will be declared overall race winners.

Setting sail from Charleston Harbour last Saturday, encountered smooth sailing on her maiden voyage to Bermuda, under the new ownership of Hofford.

The redesigned Santa Cruz, a two-time winner of the Trans Pacific Race, was previously named the and

Recalling race weather conditions, Hofford, current chairman of the South Carolina Maritime Heritage Foundation, explained: "The race started in very light winds and we had three sail changes probably before we hit the first mark and once we got out of the harbour things picked up.

"We really never got much over 15 knots of breeze the whole way through. It was a little bit calm yesterday (Tuesday) morning for about five hours with probably four knots of winds. We just had to drift around for a while until the winds picked back up a bit but overall we are very excited because this is the first time we have been first across the line."

Hofford and wife Susan's previous best C2B finish was a third in the 2001 regatta onboard

As for having watch captain Teddy Turner Jr and 2003 Around Solo winner Brad Van Liew onboard, Hofford said: "This was probably the magical ingredient on this run and we appreciate the RBYC for having us here and hopefully everyone else arrives safely in Bermuda."

For Teddy Turner Jr, seizing line honours on his fourth C2B crossing is the ideal birthday present. The yacht repair and brokerage businessman made the 777 mile trek along with brother Peter.

"This was certainly one of my best moments in sailing and these are such a great bunch of guys," said Turner, who celebrates his 42 birthday on May 29.

"We had such a great boat and crew and the weather co-operated. I have actually been sailing with some of these guys for the past 20 years."

And for those who may think being the son of a famous father has its privileges, best think again.

"The guys actually gave me a harder time than most," Turner smiled. "But I think I have earned some of their respect which is good and we look forward to doing this all over again because there's still a race record to set."

While his fellow crew members celebrated around him, Around Solo winner Van Liew seemed to have mixed reactions.

"In some ways we have won but in some ways we haven't yet," he said. "Now we are waiting to see how long it takes some of the other boats to finish.

"It's always good being the first boat into port, but it would be nice to actually win both."

Van Liew competed with Bermuda's Alan Paris in Class Two of the 2002 Around Solo Race.

Founded in 1995, the Charleston to Bermuda Race challenges sailors to navigate at a time of the year renown for its unpredictable weather conditions.

A total of 16 boats had originally entered in this year's race, however, Bob Cummings' sank in massive seas near Cape Hatteras en route to the starting line in Charleston Harbour. The skipper and crew Jerry McCarthy were airlifted to safety by the US Coast Guard.

Richard Hartley and crew Alice Kay, meanwhile, both etched their names in local sailing history by becoming the first Bermudians ever to sail up to Charleston to compete in the trans-Atlantic regatta.