yesterday.

An overnight ocean breeze provided a breath of fresh air for struggling yachts in the Newport-Bermuda Race, giving them the boost they needed and leaving only a handful of slowpokes still on the course.

The major awards, in doubt up until late Wednesday night and early yesterday morning, were for the most part also settled.

And Kodiak , the Custom 66-footer owned by Lloyd Ecclestone, came out the big winner by capturing the prestigious Lighthouse Trophy, which goes to the winning non-racer on corrected time.

Kodiak arrived at 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday but had to wait until early yesterday morning for the celebration to become official. Still, the crew had a pretty good idea, whooping it up much of Wednesday while the boat was berthed in the winner's slip.

"We knew we were in good shape when we got in,.'' said veteran crew member Karl van Schwarz. "The hardest part was waiting for the time to run out on the others.'' "We were confident -- but holding our breath,'' added Ecclestone.

The boat with the best chance of overtaking Kodiak was Emily , which needed to arrive before 3.30 a.m. yesterday to get the Lighthouse. They didn't make it until five hours later.

In addition to the Lighthouse, Kodiak won the Ray Graham Bigelow Memorial Trophy for best corrected time in Class Seven, plus the CCA Bermuda Station Award for corrected time winner in the Cruiser/Racer Division And cruiser/racer is definitely what Kodiak is. Self-sustaining, roomy inside, with three staterooms -- each with private head -- and a crew's quarters, she is also much heavier than many of her competitors. The 17-man crew travelled in relative comfort through the 635-mile voyage, although von Schwartz said some sacrifices were made for the race.

"She's a fully-fitted cruising boat (but) designed and built to sail pretty fast,'' said von Schwartz, the commodore of the Annapolis Yacht Club who has been sailing with Ecclestone for 30 years.

Kodiak has participated in four of the last five Bermuda races, missing the 1996 event because she was touring through the South Seas as part of a trip around the world.

"We're very fortunate and very pleased,'' said Ecclestone, calling the award probably the biggest he had won. The largest previous title was the Canada's Cup, in the Great Lakes in 1972.

Kodiak was one of more than 100 yachts in port late yesterday afternoon when Governor Thorold Masefield toured about 20 top finishers. With the traditional spectrum of flags climbing up the sheets of each boat, it was easy to forget the frustrations that had befallen them because of benign conditions through the first five days of the race.

Light winds made this year's race the slowest in 20 years -- but Kodiak wasn't complaining. Breezes any stronger and "we probably wouldn't have won the race,'' said von Schwartz, noting the presence of lighter, more nimble racers in the fleet.

"We had a lot of old, experienced guys (on board). we're used to being patient,'' he said.

Unlike many boats, Kodiak never stopped during the becalmed periods, although Von Schwarz said there was one six-hour spell where they moseyed along at just two knots.

With new sails and a couple of fast performances in tune-up races, von Schwarz said the crew were confident going into the race. Apart from minor corrections, navigator Dan Dyer stuck largely with the course they had set out before leaving Newport.

That meant staying well east of the Rhumb line. "Those people who stayed east were treated a lot better than the ones to the west,'' von Schwarz said.

Also treated pretty well was Kirk Cooper, who co-skippered Temptress with the boat's owner, Dr. Robert Shulman.

Cooper was the first Bermudian to arrive and their boat won Class Five, meaning they'll take the Sir Thomas Lipton Memorial Trophy at the official prizegiving on Saturday.