Brett Wright and Christian Luthi to land the Lasers title at International Race Week yesterday -- and then called for tougher competition from overseas in the future.

Smith avenged his defeat by Luthi in the recent Bermuda Lasers Championship, grabbing four firsts in the series of seven races to beat second-placed Wright by more than five points and Luthi, who finished third, by over ten.

But he said afterwards: "With no disrespect to the sailors who came I would have liked to have had more international competition. We were racing against people we know already. We've got to pull in more good sailors from the likes of Canada, South America and Europe.'' Five of eight Bermudians participating in the single-handed dinghy class took the top five spots in the competition. The remaining seven sailors all hailed from the United States.

Smith finished second to Luthi in the Island championship but thought the extended format of International Race Week favoured him. "Our nationals are run off in one day on short courses,'' he said. "I think we need to look at the format we're using in that. We're trying to run it off too fast.

"With the longer courses in International Race Week you find you can fall behind and you've still got time to get back in the race.'' Among the other dinghy classes sailed yesterday, the only major surprise came in the Snipes, where Pedro Lorson saw his overnight lead disappear as Lee Griffith grabbed a second and first to his second and fourth in the final two races to take the title by one and three quarter points after the discard.

In the JY-15s, Jim Sorenson maintained his lead with two second spots in the remaining two races in their series of six. Fellow American Jim Ryan ran him close, however, climbing from fifth overnight to second with two victories.

Mark Witte was third.

Bermudian Glenn Astwood, meanwhile, marked the return of Tornado catamarans to Race Week with a clean sweep in the four-race competition. Astwood and crewman Damian Payne saw off the challenge of John Downey, who had to settle for second place on three occasions, and Alan Burland, who had three thirds and a fourth.

As expected, Jim Bishop wrapped up the Norwegian Series B in the International One Design class, simultaneously claiming the Vrengen Gold Cup for the combination of the two series of the week. Bishop, who had set his sights firmly on an overall victory, did it in style, winning the first race of the day -- and his third in the series -- before settling for the third in the second.

Veteran Bill Widnall, winner of the Bermuda Race Week Championship A title on Tuesday, picked up a second and fifth yesterday to finish second in both the Norwegian Series B and the combined series.

Florida's Bob Bell retained his Etchells title, his win in the first race yesterday putting him ahead of England's Graham Bailey by a point and a half going into the decider.

But Bailey suffered a disastrous final race, finishing 13th, leaving him tied on points with Bermuda's Andreas Lewin. Bailey took second overall because he had posted a greater number of higher finishes. Lewin's sister Paula had her best result of the week in the first race of the day, coming in second, for an overall placing of fifth.

Canadian Michael Mountford's fourth win in eight races secured the J-24 title over compatriot Thomas Hakansson.