Just as one storm hit Newport yesterday, another one was brewing miles into the Atlantic Ocean.

Shortly after the Newport-Bermuda Race got underway came rumblings of a starting line infraction by probably the best known of the Bermuda boats, Robert Mulderig's Starr Trail .

Listed to start with the Class 12 yachts, the boat apparently left ten minutes earlier, with the Class 11s. The false start was picked up by at least one Newport-Bermuda Race committee member and officials were last night believed to be trying to determine what exactly happened.

According to rule 9.5.1 of the race's Sailing Instructions, "a yacht starting before her start time may be penalized by having her elapsed time increased by two hours ...'' But Starr Trail would appear to have an easy explanation. While the Scratch Sheet -- a starting schedule that lists all boats, their division and predicted times -- placed the boat in Class 12 (Non-Spinnaker Cruising Division), an alphabetical list of all yachts contained in the same information packet provided to skippers at the Captain's Meeting on Thursday listed her as a Class 11.

In the minutes preceding each race, yachts are required to identify themselves prior to the warning signal and to receive acknowlegment from the committee.

It was not immediately known if Starr Trail received acknowledgment.

Most race officials left for Bermuda with the fleet aboard Rainbow , a 117-foot moter vessel serving as a commmunications network. Others left Newport to catch flights to the Island.

The controversy at the start likely wasn't noticed by the hundreds of spectators who flanked both sides of the line to watch the spectacular armada depart in the 41st biennial race.

In a send-off that would do the Royal Family proud, the 162 participants blazed across the line at ten-minute intervals under threatening skies in the Rhode Island Sound.

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 while small pleasure craft darted in and out.

The earlier starting boats also took advantage of 12-knot winds -- lighter than expected -- heading soutwest, and partly cloudy skies. By the time the big boats went through nearly two hours later, thunder could be heard in the distance and the occasional bolt of lighting lit up over Newport.

Worse for the late starting boats was that the storm deadened the winds just as cruisers such as the 68-year Mistress 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 on the side with legs dangling over the edge, only 100 yards apart.

Boomerang set the record for fastest crossing in last year's race and it is that mark of 57 hours, 31 minutes and 50 seconds that Saynora is aiming for.

Boomerang surprised nearly everyone last year by covering the last five miles of the course in 15 minutes, arriving shortly before midnight. Sayonara and the other maxis left at 2.20 local time, meaning they could arrive in Bermuda at around the same time tomorrow.