In a send-off that would do the Royal Family proud, the 161 participants blazed across the line in ten-minute intervals under threatening skies in the Rhode Island Sound, about three miles out from their resting place of the previous weeks.

As three helicopters buzzed overhead, huge schooners and motor yachts laden with spectators, blared their horns to echo the starting gun aboard a US Coast Guard cutter. Between them, small pleasure craft maneuvered and Press boats darted in behind yachts.

Lining the shore of Castle Hill, a mile away, hundreds more spectators watched through binoculars.

And keeping everything in order was a fleet of police and coast guard boats, making sure the quater-mile start line was kept clear as the yachts jockeyed for position prior to the gun.

The start was in contrast to last year, when the fastest boats went first -- and disappeared over the horizon by the time the rest of the fleet had started. Leaving the likes of the five maxis until near the end kept the spectators until the end and resulted in blossoms of white sails against an increasingly black horizon.

The earlier starting boats also took advantage of 12-knot winds and partly cloudy skies. But by the time the bigger boats went through nearly two hours later, thunder could be heard in the distance and the occasional bolt of lighting lit up over Newport. Thirty minutes later, the town, suddenly quiet with the sudden departure of some 1,700 men and women, was drenched in a shower.

Worse for the late starting boats was that the storm deadened the winds just as cruisers got underway. Still, the magestic maxis cut dashing figures as they sliced through the slighlty choppy waters. The German boat Morning Glory led the way, with arch-rivals Sayonara and Boomerang , their crew sitting with legs dangling over the edge, only 100 yards apart. Once the big boats disappeared, so did most of spectators, leaving slow relics such as Mistress to plod along.