The annual sandcastle competition, a fixture of Bermuda’s Labour Day weekend, took over a section of Horseshoe Bay Beach this afternoon, with teams of up to six apiece pitting their imaginations against what could be achieved with sand, water and patience.

Chef Michiko Campbell and his co-workers “Only the Family” from Chiko&T’s restaurant in Devonshire confronted the puzzle as a team.

“We were trying to research it and figure out what to do ‒ we entered in the family category,” Mr Campbell said. “At first, we were going to do a family of turtles.”

The group, first-timers at the free competition begun in 1995, ultimately settled on constructing a treehouse as a team-building exercise that reflected their closeness as workmates.

A mid-afternoon downpour largely spared Horseshoe Beach, where competitors started building at 10am.

A team of visiting students spending part of the summer at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences opted to build a replica of Bermuda itself.

Team member Stuart Robertson said the group of teachers, teaching assistants and intern researchers, being scientists, did their best to keep the island and its reef platform accurate to scale, at 1 to 13,500.

The team, from Britain, Canada and the United States, called themselves Sandemonium.

Pete Faverio from the United States, back for his third year, went literal with his creation of ‒ a sandcastle.

“My castle is called Scarlet,” Mr Faverio said. “A young lady came down here, looked at it and said it reminded her of a movie she’d watched called Scarlet, so I called it that.”

He said the beauty of the island and the warmth of Bermudians kept him coming back, adding that Horseshoe Beach was “fabulous”.

Mr Faverio, a veteran sand sculptor, noted the differences in the types of sand at various beaches on the island, with the medium offered at Horseshoe Bay coming in especially powdery.

“Usually I like to go big,” he said. “Here, I’ve got to be careful.”