Smelly sailors, dark ?n? stormies, excitable wives, tall tales, desperation for showers and the queue to clear customs ? all the elements were in place yesterday to signify the end of the Marion-Bermuda race.

The 15th edition of the 645 mile ocean crossing passed without any major incidents and, basking on their decks and on the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club lawn, the race was declared a roaring success by all and sundry.

One man got hit by a flying fish, one had to be rescued after falling in the ocean and one skipper?s biggest problem was broken air-conditioning ? all in a four to five days? work for the men and women competing in the popular biennial event.

Multilhulls were allowed to enter for the first time and Lars Svensson?s made the most of her chance, completing the race in the quickest time ever, slashing 12 hours of time ? although it won?t count as a new race record.

A navy crew aboard were the first over the line in the main event while the fastest monohull in the fleet and the 2003 winner, had to motor home after ripping a light sail and then hitting an enormous patch of calm.

Not all the boats were in last night and not all the permutations of handicap had been completed, allowing sailors to relax and enjoy rental scooters and dry land free from the burden of working out whether or not they had yet won any of the myriad trophies on offer.

?It has been a fantastic event,? said the race?s executive director Graham Quinn, while admiring the resplendent view from the RHADC of all the recent arrivals.

?As far as we know there have been no injuries or any mishaps to report and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

?The wind obviously dropped for a substantial period which slowed down a lot of people but they know that?s what the crossing can be like.

?It is a shame one boat had to motor in and a handful were forced to pull out for a variety of reasons but basically we are very happy with the way the race has gone.?

And Quinn was delighted by the two major changes they made to the tried and tested race format, the inclusion of multihulls for the first time and a new GPS tracking system.

?It will be safe to say we are delighted with the way it worked with the multihulls,? he continued.

?We were very excited to have them included and I know the skippers really wanted to take part. The aim was to get them arriving with the bulk of the fleet and the trimaran aside, I think we achieved that.

?We could never start the boats together, they handle very differently and both sets of skippers are very wary of each other, so the staggered start worked well and will be repeated.

?We have had no negative feedback from either the multihull or the monohull skippers so we are all delighted.?

The other facet of the race to delight both Quinn and the army of friends and family of skippers was the iboat tracking system.

Using cutting edge technology, developed over the years from cylindrical devices measuring ocean currents and wind, the speed and position of each boat is plotted on a chart updated every two hours (pictured below), allowing spectators to see who has taken which route and who is ahead of the pack.

So well used was the system, which gives every boat a transponder to install on deck, that it temporarily crashed until a second server was employed to meet the demand.

?We had 60,000 hits in a 24-hour period,? continued Quinn.

?It worked very well indeed, so well in fact that one boat was contacted by concerned friends as it was registered as still being in Marion.

?The captain realised his mistake and then got the transponder out of the drawer he had left it in and placed it on deck to begin giving readings ? he was then marked as being back with the main fleet at the next update.?

He also said that one skipper turned on his phone upon arrival in Bermuda to have 20 messages from wellwishers left at various points in the race, telling him where he was compared to others and commending/berating him for his choice of route.

?It has been an unqualified success and certainly something we would be using again to help make our race as user-friendly as possible for all involved,? added Quinn.

The wonders of the system, on display at the RHADC even with only a handful of yachts still at sea, kept the crowds interested all day ? although the bar was still the main attraction for most race participants.