With sweeping to victory on Sunday afternoon, race officials began keeping an eye out for the other two Demonstration Division vessels late into the evening.

Roy Disney?s was always going to be finishing second, given her sleeker, faster design which would condemn to third out of the MaxZ86s ? but nothing could be seen on the horizon for hours.

A calming of the winds around the Island made the gap between first and second much larger than anticipated with Disney?s sled eventually coming in just before 9.30 p.m. and the third in the group around 11 p.m.

But it was the crew of who pre-race predicted they could only really compete with ?good tactics and clever sailing?, who were happiest at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

?We are as happy as Larry with the way things went,? said navigator Nic White a few hours after his arrival.

?At the half-way stage we were in the lead, which is some going. The race pretty much started again at dusk on Saturday as the three of us were pretty close but we just couldn?t keep pace with them after that, they have boats we are not going to beat in a straight race.?

And it was canny seamanship that kept in the running for as long as she was, with Dick and Doug DeVos? vessel making an early break from the two faster boats and hoping to make the most of what the saw as favourable conditions to the west.

By going it alone, managed to spend more time in the Gulf Stream and picked up a few extra knots of boat speed.

?It was fantastic,? gushed the New Zealander, clearly desperate to finish his interview and get away to join the rest of the crew for his first proper breakfast since Friday.

?It was unbelievable what we managed to do with her. We took a bit of a risk and no one came with us and we found the winds we were really looking for and got a boost.

?We don?t have the equipment these guys do on their boat, so we were pretty delighted with what we managed to do out there.?