Abbot Fletcher's sloop from Orr's Island, Maine, was last night ranked number one overall with a corrected time of 3:00:47:57 in the 645-mile ocean crossing. Following close behind on corrected time were Anny , skippered by Loren Vultee, and Veritas , skippered by Phil Hutchinson.

As of last night, 68 out of the 84 participating boats had crossed the finish line at St. David's Light. Very light winds have delayed the remaining boats still at sea and it is not expected that they will be able to produce a time fast enough to unseat Majek .

Fletcher, who arrived with his crew late Tuesday night, concurred with the sentiments of the other finishers, saying he had a smooth sail all the way.

"We played the west shore coming out of Buzzard's Bay (Massachussetts) and were in very good shape. An added advantage was that we rode the western edge of a cold eddy, which gave us a boost.'' Bermudian Paul Hubbard's Tonka , a Sigma 36, managed to claim second place in its class, fourth overall, and was the first Bermuda boat overall on a corrected time of 3:04:23:43.

In contrast to the difficulty and bad weather the crew experienced on the way to Marion, sailing back home was a breeze.

"The navigator on board (Gary Venning) put us in an excellent condition. We stayed on the right side of the current all the way down and we crossed the Gulf Stream at exactly the right point,'' said Hubbard.

Venning used celestial navigation and "when we turned on the GPS 50 miles off the coast of Bermuda, we were less than a mile off,'' said Hubbard.

"The boat who beat us, Anny , is a 41-foot boat and we are only 36. It was very frustrating when we were trying to catch up because there was nothing more we could do to make our boat go any faster.'' Akka , which took line honours when it finished early Tuesday morning, sits in eighth spot on corrected time.

In Newport, Mountain Sky Magic , with Alan Brutger and his brother Douglas aboard, became the first to finish the Bermuda One-Two race, crossing the finish line yesterday afternoon.

Of the boats reporting positions yesterday, it appeared that Flying Turtle , with Providence sailor Murray Danforth at the helm, was leading the fleet chasing the Brutger brothers. There was so little breeze, however, that the defending overall champion, Patrick Mouligne, last night reported that he and his son, John-Jay, had sailed less than 50 miles in 12 hours, said Betsy McClintock, event coordinator.

Sailing the first leg of the race between Newport and Bermuda alone, Alan Brutger of Bozeman, Montana, completed the passage in a little over 86 hours.

Sailing the return leg with his brother, an Annapolis sailor, Brutger needed about 11 more hours to complete the 635-mile passage.