International Race Week officials had to react rapidly yesterday to save three sailors involved in a collision between boats competing in separate classes in treacherous conditions in the Great Sound.

Skipper Bill Steele, a Western Australian, and his crew of Andre Soriano and Steve Ellis had moved to the bow of their Etchells after an International One Design vessel sliced through their cockpit, ultimately sending the boat to the ocean floor.

Witness Talbot Wilson, who was on one of the jury boats, said the incident happened about 400 yards from the finish.

"By the time we got down there, the deck was even with the water. The crew were picked up by official boats and than transferred to a bigger vessel.'' The accident happened about a half mile from Somerset Bridge with already rough waters being churned up by gusts of wind approaching 30 knots.

One crew member of the IOD described events leading up to the crash which occurred with both classes, a fleet of upwards of 25 boats in total, using the same course.

He said: "We were originally going to tack away from all the Etchells, but as we slowed down one of the other boats waved us through.

"That put us right in the thick of it and we had to make some quick decisions. But sometimes with these heavy boats they don't turn quickly enough even if you respond quickly.'' Steele said: "I thought they were going to cut it a bit fine. But then their bow came through and pretty much sliced the back off the cockpit. We minimised damage to ourselves by moving away.'' Steele, who once helped to rescue a competitor in the Sydney-Hobart race, praised the race organisers for their quick response.

"They handled it with total aplomb and were very professional.'' Steele and the skipper of the IOD, American Anthony Huston, were later locked in discussions with the race jury, where it was decided that Steele's position in the race at the time of the accident would stand after Huston accepted responsibility.

Huston's two other crew members Christine Connal and Charlotte Skoog commended Steele on his acceptance of the situation.

Skoog, competing in her first Bermuda International Race Week, said: "They have been so good about it, so gracious.'' But the accident left Steele and his crew facing an anxious wait to see if they could carry on competing on Thursday, with today's lay-day at least giving them a bit of breathing space.

"I'm hoping that a spare boat will be available, but I really would prefer to get the sails up from the other one,'' said Steele, who sails in the south of England for four months of the year.

That could prove problematic since the exact co-ordinates of where the boat went down were not recorded -- a fact criticised by Bermudian Peter Bromby.

Bromby said: "There were about 40 boats out there, everybody watched it sink but nobody thought to try to take down the exact co-ordinates. We should have leapt overboard.'' But he remained hopeful of locating it, saying that when he finally reacted to try to mark the boat's demise, he said there was still two feet of mast sticking out of the water. He added: "You can get a bit of a current out there but I don't think a boat weighing about 3600 lbs will move very far.'' However, if conditions don't improve today to allow the boat to be spotted in the general area from the surface, it is likely that a diver will have to be towed along the bottom to find it.

"Hopefully he'll come across the boat if we can get within 50 metres of it and then tow him back and forth,'' said Bromby.

The huge number of protests emerging from yesterday's competition meant that results were not made available to The Royal Gazette before press time last night. Because of the poor conditions, sailing in the dinghy classes did not take place.

Sail of woe: Penny Simmons and wife Sacha manage to smile despite a disastrous day for their family at Interntional Race Week yesterday. They both suffered injuries, while their son Scott's boat, in the Etchells class, sank following a collision with another craft. See story, page one.