basking in the glory of a new record for the Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race.

The veteran yachtsman was first across the finish line off St. David's late Monday night, duplicating the feat he performed in 1991.

His time of 78 hours, 34 minutes and 42 seconds eclipsed the previous mark established four years ago by Warren Brown in War Baby by a scant 21 seconds, thus securing Cooper's place in history.

"This is just fantastic,'' exclaimed Cooper after receiving confirmation of the result late yesterday afternoon. "The whole crew is thrilled. It is so rewarding after such a long trip.'' There was also some underlying gratification for Cooper, who encountered some health problems the previous time he attempted a similar crossing.

"My last trip down here a year and a half ago I got very sick and was kind of worried about that this time,'' he said. "I wanted to be sure I could conquer that, so in a sense it was a personal victory.'' Aside from Cooper, Bermuda could celebrate another victory as Mr. Benjamin (Buddy) Rego when his boat Tsunami , emerged as the best in Class A on corrected time -- Cooper was also in this class.

Rego completed the 645-mile passage from Marion in 86:37:21, corrected to to 75:52:21.

Making the accomplishment all the more remarkable was the fact that Rego was skippering in his first Marion race, although he already has 30,000 ocean miles to his credit.

"The toughest thing was getting out of the fog in Buzzards Bay,'' said Rego of the start where visibility was extremely poor. "We had a good navigator in Ralph Richardson, but it was a very tricky piece of work to get out of it.

"The first five hours were the hardest part of the trip.'' Another local, Mr. Paul Hubbard made it a hat-trick of Corporation of Hamilton Trophies for the leading Bermuda boat on corrected time, as his Sigma 36 Tonka boasted the best time of 75:34:01.

American yacht Wildflower was the overall leader in the category with a startling 70:12:07.

At Press time six of the seven Bermuda boats racing had arrived safely -- Mr.

Nicholas Dill's Dillightful retired on Saturday -- with only Scheherazade (Mr.

Leslie Swainson) yet to make it to port.

RECORD BREAKERS -- Kirk Cooper pictured with some of his crew members aboard Alphida , which set a new record for elapsed time in the Marion to Bermuda race. Pictured from left to right, standing, Blair Simmons, Cooper, Malcolm Wilson, John Brooks and Scott Simmons. Kneeling, Ken Lamb and Bill Dawson.