Heiner too quick for Pac

Bertrand Pac, the world champion, could do nothing right in the final of the Faberg Brut Cup in San Francisco, going down 0-3 to Roy Heiner, the Dutchman scoring his first major match-racing grand prix win after three years on the circuit.

Heiner was rewarded with the $7,500 (£4,750) first prize and plenty of bonus points to boost his world ranking. He is a third of the way to a prize of $250,000 if he can win two of the remaining four Faberg regattas, although the next of these, at Lymington in June, is sponsored by Vauxhall for the last time.

San Francisco failed to deliver good conditions on the last day, the breeze softening to become so patchy that Pac's third defeat was by more than 10 minutes as he was continually carried backwards by a strong, ebbing tide.

Thierry Peponnet beat the world No 1, Peter Gilmour of Australia, in the best-of-three sail-off for third place.

The initial two-year entry into sailing by Faberg, which is also supporting the Royal Yachting Association's Olympic selection trials at Weymouth in September, as well as four 18ft skiff regattas, is to be linked to a group of match races, including such people as Britain's Chris Law, sailing under the banner of Team Brut. Ironically, Heiner was not picked by Faberg as a team member, but beat all those who were.