Four years ago, Starr Trail took top honours in its cruising class but despite not being to emulate that feat in Class Eight of the IMS Cruiser Racers this year, the owner and crew of the first Bermuda boat to complete the Newport-Bermuda Race are pleased with their performance.

"In 1998 we competed in the cruising class. Our boat is set up with hydraulic winches which we can use in the cruising class but we can't use in the cruiser racers (class). This time we tried for cruiser racer and we were reasonably pleased with the performance of the boat," said owner Robert Mulderig.

"We had a good sail but we were not as competitive in our class as we were the last time when we won.

"The boat is more of a cruising boat than it is a racing boat. That's part of it and the other part was just luck. We had a number of hours where we had way too little wind but you get what you get out there and overall we had a very good, safe race."

The 49-year-old Chief Executive Officer of Mutual Risk Management and his crew crossed the finish off St. David's at 4.46 p.m. on Monday to have the distinction of being the first Bermuda entry to complete the 635-mile venture from Rhode Island, USA. Their corrected time was 66 hours, 56 minutes, 43 seconds.

"We would have liked to have done better in our fleet but out there, with so many varying conditions, if you're not in the right place at the right time it can be to your advantage or disadvantage," noted crew Glenn Astwood, who was also aboard Starr Trail in 1998.

Another crew member, Steven King, told of the kind of drama and suspense that are the trademarks of novels by his namesake.

"I've done three Newport-Bermuda races and this was the most exciting of the three, with the winds and the variation in conditions. It was pretty intense at times, being wiped up to windward, headsails and spinnakers blowing out all hours of the night and having guys hanging on in all sorts of situations. It was quite intense - a great rush," recalled the 38-year-old sailing enthusiast, smiling broadly as he reminisced.

Like his colleagues, he was thrilled to see landfall and to set foot on his homeland.

"You always know when you're getting close (to Bermuda). At 9.30 yesterday morning a pair of longtails were flying over the top of the mast. They looked like they were trying to take out our wind-reading instruments off the top of the rig so it was pretty exciting coming home."

Overall, it was "a great team effort", he noted, adding that everyone enjoyed the trip and working together to make it successful.

"You can't win them all but what you get out of it - being part of the event and the camaraderie - makes it all worthwhile," said King.

Starr Trail, which is captained by Blair Simmons, will return to Newport, Rhode Island, to race during the summer before sailing back to the Caribbean next year.

At 6.18 p.m. yesterday, 152 of the 174 boats in the event had completed the journey.

Paul Hubbard's Bermuda Oyster was the only local boat still unaccounted for with Babe, owned by Colin Couper, being the leading Bermuda boat on corrected time (64 hours, 52 minutes, 33 seconds). The vessel also lies third in Class Four of the IMS Cruiser Racer category.