SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Twenty-five years after they started sailing a dinghy together on Seattle's Lake Washington, brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee shared an Olympic bronze medal and high-fives aboard a fast skiff on Sydney Harbor.

The McKees needed a great finish Sunday on the cold, gray, blustery afternoon to win a medal, and they got it by winning the 16th and final fleet race in the 49er class by a whopping 1 minute, 26 seconds.

The brothers, normally reserved after victories earlier in the regatta, were stoked after this one. They hugged and slapped hands.

"It's pretty exciting," said Jonathan McKee, the skipper. "We've sailed together on and off for 25 years and we've never had an opportunity to go to the Olympics (together), and here we are. It's definitely something special to do it together."

Jonathan McKee, 40, won the Flying Dutchman gold medal in 1984 and Charlie, 38, took the 470 bronze in 1988.

"It's a great feeling for us, at what would have to be the end of our Olympic careers, to be able to top it off here by winning the medals as brothers," Charlie McKee said. "It's pretty special."

The McKees probably would be done with the Olympics if not for the 49er, an exciting class that made its Olympic debut in its home harbor. The 49er _ named for its length, 4.99 meters _ is a fast, winged skiff that was designed by an Aussie based on the popular Sydney 18-footers.

"This boat came along and it just re-energized us," Charlie McKee said. "It was like, `Hey, this is an opportunity for us to sail together again' and we were having a good time and doing pretty well."

They liked the boat's speed and the challenge of trying to conquer the new class.

"It's just so much faster and more exciting than most of the other classes," Charlie McKee said.

The McKees were the oldest sailors in the Olympic 49er fleet, which clearly got a lot of attention.

"I think it's an exciting type of boat that the kids sitting at home can look at something like this and say, `Yeah, that's cool, that's the kind of sailing that I want to do,"' Jonathan McKee said. "Not to take anything away from the other classes, but it's fun to be a part of something that's kind of cutting edge."

The brothers don't know how much longer they'll sail the 49er. They've both signed on with the challenge mounted by Seattle telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw for the America's Cup in 2002-03 in New Zealand.

The McKees entered the race in third place, six points behind Britain, having blown their chance at a gold medal by having their worst day of the regatta on Saturday. While they struggled with the light, shifting wind that day, Finland's Thomas Johanson and Jyrki Jarvi sailed brilliantly and clinched the gold with one race to sail.

Jonathan McKee said their two goals were to make sure they won a medal, and if possible, to get five boats between them and the British, who came in second.

Poland was second in the race and Britain's Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks were third to finish four points ahead of the McKees for the silver.

Spain also was in contention for a medal, but the only real shot it had was if either the Brits or Americans took a splash. Spain finished fourth in the race and overall, 15 points behind the McKees.

"We did what we could and they just sailed a great second half of the race," Jonathan McKee said of the British.

The McKees and the Spanish took turns leading midway through the three-lap, windward-leeward race. Charlie McKee made perfect calls reading the shifts sailing into the wind for the third and final time, and they rounded the mark well ahead of the Spanish.

They hoisted their red spinnaker, hiked out in their trapeze harnesses and blew down the run to the finish, toward Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.

As the fleet returned to Rushcutters Bay, the Finns, Brits and Americans flew their country flag spinnakers. Those sails were used in the first two fleet races, but had to be stowed after organizers discovered that the printing process weakened the cloth.

It's the first sailing medal for the Americans in these games, and leaves them just one short of matching their disappointing total in 1996.

The McKees' bronze came one day after Soling skipper Jeff Madrigali of Novato, Calif., was blown out of the regatta by going 1-4 in his match-race round robin. Madrigali was the 1996 bronze medalist and reigning world champion.

Americans also failed to win a medal in men's and women's windsurfing and the Tornado class.

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)