A 176-strong armada of cruising yachts set sail for the Island yesterday as the 42nd Newport-Bermuda race got off to a rapid start in near-perfect weather conditions.

Early morning mist over the southern coast of Rhode Island dissipated quickly and gave way to clear blue skies.

And by the time the first starting gun sounded at 12.50 p.m., a steady south-westerly wind of 15 to 18 knots had kicked in to give skippers the type of conditions they could hardly have dared dream of.

As a result, the yachts got off to a high-speed start and it was not long before the forest of masts leaving Narragansett Bay disappeared over the horizon.

Particularly impressive were the 80-foot, lightweight maxi-yachts competing in the IMS Grand Prix Racing Division, Sagamore and Sayonara , which were gliding through the water at speeds of around 15 knots in the early stages of the 635-mile crossing.

The two lavishly financed American boats are among the favourites to be first across the finishing line off St. David's Lighthouse.

And if winds remain favourable for long enough, the race record time of 57 hours, 31 minutes and 50 seconds, set by 1996 winner Boomerang , another 80-foot maxi which also started briskly yesterday, could be under threat.

Experts forecast that winds would get stronger last night, but then start to drop to around 10 knots by later today. By tomorrow the leaders in the fleet are expected to run into a high pressure area stretching northwards from Bermuda, which will mean wind speeds dropping to as low as five knots.

All seven Bermuda boats competing avoided mishaps in the jostling for position which preceded the start of each of the 12 classes.

Not all were so fortunate, however. The 55-foot Frers Equinox , skippered by American Keith Rhea, found itself in a predicament after hooking onto one of the two large orange buoys which mark the `gate' all starters must pass through.

After a frantic five-minute struggle, the Equinox crew managed to free the buoy and belatedly start their voyage to the south.

One Bermuda skipper who would have been especially pleased with his start was Steve Sherwin on board his 35-year-old, 44-foot Camper Nicholson Borderlaw .

Sherwin and his crew of Jeremy Asson, Greg Vasic, Rick Hornett, Derek Pedro, Tim Astley, Liz Pedro and Robbie Horne, left all their three opponents in the non-spinnaker Classic Yachts Division in their wake.

Among those opponents was the Rhodes 54 Kirawan , winner of the storm-hit 1936 race and amazingly back on the ocean for the 2000 race.

Veteran Bermudian skipper Warren Brown started his 19th Newport-Bermuda race yesterday on his 61-foot sloop War Baby . His crew of 12 included Bermudians Kevin Horsfield, Jack Ward and his daughter Melissa Moore.

But beating Brown out of the blocks in class six of the Cruiser-Racer Division yesterday was fellow Island skipper Buddy Rego on his chartered Swan 48 Hinano . Rego's crew includes five more Bermudians, navigator Scott King, Michael Carey, Bill Riker, Ken Lamb and Mark Hennenberger.

Two Bermuda boats, Colin Couper's Babe and Richard Spurling's Petites Cayes , sailed side by side over the start line in class four.

Spurling's crew includes locals Andrew West and Giles Spurling, while Couper's Turn to page 19 Newport Continued from page 17 includes David Lewis, Stephen Kempe, Jim Herkes-Burnett, Bobby Oatley, Charles Loader, Somers Kempe, Douglas DeCouto and Jesse DeCouto.

Also in the Cruiser-Racer Division is Les Crane's Monterey , with Warren McHarg, Court Crane, Nicola Crane, Alexandra Crane and John Cooper from Bermuda.

Sailing in the non-spinnaker Cruising Division is Paul Hubbard's Bermuda Oyster , carrying locals Gary Venning, Michael Gladwin and Nick Pettit.

Kirk Cooper is co-skippering Richard Sculman's American boat Temptress and his crew includes fellow Islander Bill Dawson.

The fastest boats are expected to reach Bermuda early on Monday morning.

The race winner on corrected time will receive and keep the coveted Lighthouse Trophy, a silver-and-gold replica of St. David's Lighthouse.