Maxi-yacht Sagamore took line honours in the Newport-Bermuda race just before 1 a.m. yesterday morning after winning what turned into day-long match race against Sayonara .

The two American 80-footers finished just 13 minutes apart with Sagamore , owned and skippered by James Dolan, of Oyster Bay, New York, coming out on top.

But the coveted Lighthouse Trophy for the fastest finisher on corrected time was won by Eric Crawford from Maryland and his 35-year-old Rhodes 41 Restless , one of the smallest boats in the race.

The glassfibre yacht had the highest handicap within the 176-strong fleet and suffered least from the light airs at the finish.

"We have a good handicap, but I would like to think this win was down to the skill of my crew,'' said Crawford.

"Eric did a good job predicting what was going to happen and putting us in the right places at the right time,'' said bowman and brother-in-law Mike Keene..

He took them east of the rhumb line soon after the start, kept them in the middle as they crossed the Gulf Stream, then to the west for the latter stages.

"That was important,'' said Crawford. "I resisted several calls to set a spinnaker in order to keep upwind and that paid off handsomely because when the wind swung round, we didn't have to tack until shortly before the line.'' During her first 24 hours at sea, Restless covered 208 miles -- an average of 8.6 knots. Then, when the winds went light, stalling those ahead of her, Crawford had his boat neatly positioned in favourable current within the Gulf Stream.

Crawford, who has been sailing all his life and completed a circumnavigation as a boy, has owned Restless for 13 years.

Sagamore's navigator Ian Moore said the latter stages of the race, as the crew desperately tried to keep the boat moving and ahead of Sayonara in almost wind-free conditions, had been tense and sleepless.

"For the last 24 hours of the race, we were basically match-racing with Sayonara ,'' said Moore, from Southampton, England.

"It was exhausting, not so much the physical work -- because conditions were light -- but more the mental stress of having to look hard for any new breeze and keep your eye on what other boats are doing.

"We and Sayonara have a pretty long rivalry and they are a difficult team to beat.'' Moore said early winds had got the maxis off to a great start before they crossed the Gulf Stream and encountered a high pressure sitting over Bermuda which snuffed out the breeze.

"In the first 24 hours we went about 290 miles and we were at record-breaking pace for 36 hours,'' he said. "Those conditions were better for Sayonara than us -- she was going half a knot faster than we were and all we could do was watch her go over the horizon.

"It took us 24 hours to travel the last 50 miles -- conditions were completely different. We were constantly changing tacks for the last 25 miles -- the guys were flat out. Line honours are what we're here for, so we're all delighted.'' Moore started sailing regularly on Sagamore after joining up for a maxi regatta at Cowes last year and he said the core of the 20-man crew had been together for two to three years.

Tactician Kenny Reed, the US Admiral's Cup and America's Cup helmsman, had made his debut for the boat and Moore said he had been invaluable.

Larry Ellison's Sayonara was moored at St. George's yesterday and her crew, skippered by New Zealander Chris Dickson, were making a hasty return to the US for their next regatta.

There was another duel for third place, with an even closer finish. The third maxi and race record holder Boomerang was beaten to the line by just 10 minutes by Bob Towse's Blue Yankee .

"We came out of the (Gulf) Stream and the wind dropped to 11 to three knots, but that's ocean racing,'' said Towse. "We made some good moves.'' For Towse, a three-time US Admiral's Cup skipper who has also completed four Fastnet races, it was a fourth Newport race.

His 23-year-old son Farley Towse, a crew member, said: "Some of the guys said the last part of the race was the slowest 100 miles they had ever done,'' said Towse junior.

Basking in glory: Crew members of Sagamore , the first yacht to cross the line in the Newport-Bermuda Race, relax on deck after three-and-a-half days at sea.