High winds kept sailors on dry land on the scheduled opening day of International Race Week on Sunday.

But while there was no such delay yesterday, Mother Nature still had a say in the proceedings.

Late in the day a waterspout suddenly appeared from out of a dark, dense cloud, descending on the race course around both competitors and spectator boats.

"It sort of formed just ahead of us and then it came around the boat and swirled around a bit," said Edward Rance at the helm of Royal Bermuda Yacht Club's official race committee boat, Cleopatra.

"We were located just to the east of Fort Scaur and it just came down, went over the boat and then built up again."

Though a spectacle to observe, Rance warned that waterspouts could be hazardous.

"If you get close enough to a real serious one, then they can cause quite a few problems," he added. "It's a similar thing to tornadoes on land. They can capsize smaller boats."

Racing, however, wasn't affected by the spout.

"I don't think that it caused any major distractions," said Rance. "We had just started one class (J-105s) and I think that a couple of those boats got just on the edge of it because it sort of formed right over them."