was awarded the Juan Perez Trophy for sportsmanship at the prize ceremony that concluded the biennial event.

The Perez trophy is the most distinguished award for the Bermuda One-Two in that its recipient is chosen by his fellow sailors as best exemplifying the true spirit of the event.

Dixon, sailing his 34-foot gaff-rigged Venus-class ketch Seeker , will have made four passages between Bermuda and Newport by the time he returns to Bermuda later this month.

He arrived in Newport from Bermuda on June 4, sailed the single-handed leg back to Bermuda then returned to Newport on the double-handed leg. He expects to return to Bermuda this week.

Bermudian Sean Dill has sailed with Dixon on all but the single-handed leg.

At the ceremony, Alan Brutger from Montana, sailing his 47-foot sloop Mountain Sky Magic was the big winner. Brutger was the first to finish on both legs, the corrected time leader on the double-handed leg -- sailing with his brother Douglas as crew -- and the overall combined corrected time winner.

More than 300 boats sailed each leg.

The Bermuda One-Two has been sailed biennially since 1977 and, using two legs with combined results, it is a unique race that allows participants a week or more in Bermuda before the start of the return race.

The race has also served as preparation for trans-Atlantic and round-the-world single-handed races for a number of past participants.

Other overall class winners were Murray Danforth of Providence with Flying Turtle in Class II, Patrick Mouligne's Frog Kiss out of Newport in Class III, and Carter Cordner and Jim Hackett, who each skippered a leg in the 32-foot Kemancha , took Class IV. Kemancha with Cordner at the helm, was the overall fleet winner of the single-handed leg andf was awarded the St. George's Trophy in ceremonies at the end of the first leg.