member of one will be forced to fly home later in the week.

Bill Hough, who sailed in the race with Bill Kardash's Ugly Duckling , opted to take a quicker route after suffering a broken leg during Friday's Onion Patch Series.

While Ugly Duckling went on to win the Henry duPont Trophy for top individual yacht in the Onion Patch, Hough went on to King Edward VII Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.

He will remain in hospital until Wednesday and the lower part of his right leg in a cast for close to two months.

But the Merchant Marine from Chester, Maryland, said he wasn't going to let what he termed "just a run of the mill broken leg'' take away from his first trip to Bermuda.

"It was just one of those things,'' he said. "Except it's supposed to happen to the other guy.'' Hough played down the incident, caused when he fell through the forward hatch as the boat was preparing for the start, but his actions immediately afterwards suggested otherwise. A former paramedic and member of the ski patrol, he first directed his crew mates on how to apply the splint then refused to be taken to shore until the race was over.

"I kind of insisted on (going ahead with the race),'' he admitted. "Nothing was going to change (the severity of the injury) in that short period of time.'' Instead, he stabilised himself below deck and held on until the first race was over before allowing himself to be loaded into a waiting ambulance.

Did his background as a paramedic help? "Sure did,'' he said. "I knew right away what happened and what to do. When they opened up the first aid kit, I said `You just need this, this and this'.'' One source of concern, however, was that the bone marrow of his tibia was exposed. Hough recognised this and so did doctors at the hospital, which is why he underwent an operation on Friday to make sure there was no infection.

As for the rest of the boats and crew, yesterday was a slow day.

In contrast to the laughter and pedestrian traffic of the previous few days, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club was a much quieter place. Some crew and members of the race committee went to church or to the beach. Others got ready for the more leisurely trip to the US, where all but a handful of boats are based.

The last boat to finish was Sunstone , which arrived early Saturday morning, with an elapsed time of 180 hours, 22 minutes and 57 seconds -- or nearly twice that of Alexia , which took line honours on Tuesday.

The last-place honours earned the boat's cook, Fiona Wylie, the Galley Slave Trophy during the prize-giving party.

Of the 161 yachts that started in Newport last Friday, only 130 finished. The remainder decided to retire, either turning around or motoring in to port, and all were accounted for by Rainbow -- the communications vessel that travelled with the fleet -- or Harbour Radio.

Among those that failed to finish was Mistress , the 1930s-era wooden sloop, appearing in the race for the first time since 1954.