ensure that crews preparing this week for the Newport-Bermuda Race will be the most safety-conscious competitors in the event's 94-year history.

Newport race chairman Ron Trossbach said yesterday the notorious race off Australia in which six sailors perished in a storm which whipped up 40-foot seas sent a message about the deadly seriousness of safety at sea.

Speaking at the Newport Harbor and Marina Hotel, where skippers were registering ahead of Friday's race start from the Rhode Island town's picturesque bay, Trossbach said the horrific events surrounding the ill-fated voyage to Hobart had haunted him.

"It's something I think about all the time,'' said Trossbach, who has spent the last two years heading the operation to organise the race.

"I think the Sydney-Hobart race was a wake-up call. But we still can't say there is a new piece of gear that will make the risks of ocean racing any different.'' Trossbach added that the Cruising Club of America, co-sponsors of the race along with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, had made a year-long study of the tragedy and had given a presentation to 1,000 people on the lessons to be learned from it.

Those lessons had been incorporated into the 2000 race regulations, added Trossbach, who skippered his own yacht in the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Newport-Bermuda races.

New requirements include a quarter of each crew attending a pre-race `Safety at Sea' seminar and at least 80 percent of each crew taking part in specific pre-race training on their race yacht before the start.

"The final section of the 2000 NOR (notice of race) has been completely revised,'' said Trossbach. "It reflects lessons learned from reports of ageing and inadequate safety equipment and crews not using personal flotation, harnesses, safety lines, jacklines, life rafts, storm sails and heavy weather sailing techniques to their maximum potential.

"These lessons will be considered during the pre-race inspection of all yachts and in review of qualifications of all crews racing to Bermuda. People are naturally more alert because of Sydney. But many of the changes were being considered by the race commitee before Sydney happened.'' George Bauer, another race committee member, who doubles up as an inspector of the boats taking part, said safety had come to be taken more seriously in recent times.

Himself a veteran of 11 Newport-Bermuda crossings, Bauer said: "People have become much more safety-conscious. Ten years ago, you felt as if you were imposing on an owner if you suggested a safety improvement. Nowadays the attitudes are very different, people are much more aware.'' Apart from checking that all crews have the very best in modern life-saving gear, Bauer also has to ensure at least two people on each boat have been trained in CPR and all crews carry a man overboard drill certificate acquired in the last 12 months.

A medical kit comprising treatments for a long list of ailments for everything from eye infections to sun burn must be on board, with one crew member designated `ship's doctor'.

"The conditions are very stringent,' said Bauer. "The reason is that we don't want to rely on search and rescue, we want them to be equipped to race through a storm.'' The communications vessel for this year's race will be Geronimo , a 70-foot cutter, used as a sailing school vessel by the St. George's School in Newport.

It will keep in touch with the fleet by short wave radio.

Although the crews will be well prepared for violent weather, long-range forecasts suggest they will not be subjected to it.

Trossbach said: "I've heard we'll be getting south-westerly winds of 15 to 25 knots, which is very positive. And there's a large high pressure moving out there which might give us light winds as they get to Bermuda.''