honour belongs to Frenchman Jean-Pierre Mouligne and his custom-built sloop, Cray Valley .

It was a little more than 18 months ago that he and his crew sailed from the Rhode Island port to St. George's in 53 hours, 46 minutes and ten seconds -- four hours faster than what Boomerang accomplished the previous June.

The catch, however, is that Cray Valley didn't do it in a race. Rather, Mouligne took advantage of weather predictions and a two-day window that presented a perfect opportunity to better the mark.

Boomerang , of course, had no such opportunity when she took line honours in the 40th biennial race in 1996.

Even Mouligne, who was giving his high-tech, 50-foot boat a trial run, didn't take the achievement too seriously.

"The record only means what people want it to mean,'' he said after his arrival. "We're not trying to show that we're faster than Boomerang . With the same weather conditions, I'm sure the record is very beatable.'' Cray Valley used three straight days of strong northeast east winds to her advantage, averaging 14 knots an hour in swells as high as 25 feet.

Ironically, Mouligne actually sailed well east of the rhumb line, a total of 760 miles -- more than 100 miles more than if they had gone in a straight line.

Others also didn't read too much into the record.

Said former Royal Bermuda Yacht Club commodore Brian Billings, "It's comparing apples to oranges ... If Boomerang came across at the same time, there's no telling what she could have done.'' Ironically, Cray Valley's record crossing came just four days after an attempt by another American yacht, Greenwich Propane .

Owner/skipper John Barry missed by just ten minutes breaking Boomerang's record -- although his 40-foot trimaran did set set the mark for a muti-hull boat.

Greenwich Propane completed the voyage in 57 hours, 41 minutes and 47 seconds.

"We pushed the boat hard and got everyting out of it,'' he said. "We reflected back as to what we could have done to make the boat go faster and the answer is nothing. We made no mistakes, nothing broke, no tactical errors.

We just didn't have enough wind at the finish.'' Cray Valley and Greenwich Prpopane had something else in common: Both left Newport in the middle of a November snowstorm, encountering rough seas along the way. Both Mouligne and Barry said Bermuda was a welcome sight.

For the previous 14 years, or up until Boomerang came along, the fastest crossing belonged to Nirvana , the massive 81-footer, who made the trip in 62:69:16 in 1982.

ALL THUMBS -- While George Coumantaros (second from right) and Boomerang hold the record, the mark for fastest Newport-Bermuda crossing was later broken.