Bermuda's Glenn Astwood was unable to make it three-out-of-three victories for local sailors in his quest to advance to today's Bermuda Gold Cup quarter-finals.

He, like all three other sailors who trailed 2-1 overnight in Group Two of the round of 16, lost his first race yesterday in Hamilton Harbour to succumb 3-1 and be eliminated. Others who faltered at the same stage were Sweden's Marie Bjorling, American Tucker Thompson and Englishman Chris Law. The two other Bermudian skippers in the competition - Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin - were among four sailors from Group One who qualified for the last eight on Wednesday.

"We were doing quite well in the pre-start. We had him trapped where we wanted him and then we let him off the hook. It was a close all the way but we just couldn't get our nose in front. Then a boat got in between us and pushed me out at the leeward mark which gave him some more distance. We closed back up again, got tied with him and almost passed him downwind but there just wasn't enough race track," said Astwood of his defeat by Steffan Lindberg of Finland.

However, the 47-year-old was upbeat about his Gold Cup campaign overall, terming it "the best year I have had".

"We won our qualifier and to go out there and take a race off a seeded skipper, we're quite happy. We are once-a-year warriors but these guys do it full-time," he noted.

Lindberg, 31, was relieved not to have to go to a fifth and decisive race against his local rival.

"We are very happy to win quickly. We knew it would be tough against a local guy. They know these boats and they have great boat handling and speed so we are very happy to get through to the quarter-finals," said the world number 12 match racer who has sailed International One Designs (IODs) once before.

Anticipating today's quarter-final against Jesper Radich, Lindberg is optimistic he can continue his recent winning streak against the Dane.

"We have raced him a lot in the last three or four years. My record (against him) was very bad until August this year. Since then we have beaten him 3-0 so we are pretty confident going into tomorrow (today)."

A jovial Radich, who saw off Thompson, is not flustered by his lack of form lately. The world number four believes he can bounce back.

"I lost the touch a bit after July. We've done quite badly in our last two or three events and we lost a lot to Steffan. Before that we were winning against him for the past three years so I hope I'll be able to pick that up again. It's going to be a good match.

"I have a good idea of his style of sailing. He has improved a lot. Perhaps he has learnt how I sail," said the 27-year-old laughing.

Radich disclosed his team were pleased to reach the last eight because at least their expenses for the trip to Bermuda were now covered by the prize money. A pot of $65,000 is up for grabs, with amounts varying from $20,000 for the winner to $3,400 for eighth place. Ninth to 16th place receive $500 each.

Saying it's his "initial stab at match racing" as a skipper, Thompson was proud of how his team performed and was honoured to qualify for the Gold Cup proper though, in the end, his inexperience showed against Radich.

"We would get ahead of him and then he would stick it to us at just the right moment. We learnt a lot racing against him," said the 28-year-old who has raced in the Gold Cup before as part of Law's crew.

Law himself fared no better than Thompson, losing at the hands of match-racing world champion Karol Jablonski of Poland.

Conceding his team did not sail well on Wednesday, Law was hopeful yesterday would have yielded better results and it looked promising initially.

"We started well. We were right on him plus he had a penalty. I really felt we could level it but he held in there with us. He managed to negate the penalty on me and then get me penalised.

"Basically, under pressure, I made mistakes," said the 50-year-old frankly.

Jablonski - the current match-racing world champion - dismissed any idea that he was under pressure because of his status or that he should naturally be the odds-on favourite for the title.

"I'm in a strong learning curve because it's my first time in these boats. My experience in bigger boats is helping me understand how IODs move and turn and my crew is doing a great job but it's not going to be easy," reasoned the 40-year-old Pole.

"We have a chance. We are world champions and we have beaten most of these guys already. We feel pretty good and we're treating it like just another day in the office."

Jablonski comes up against Mattias Rahm of Sweden today. The latter knocked out his Swedish compatriot Marie Bjorling who belongs to the same sailing club as him at home.

"Jablonski is very good racer, especially this year. He won the world championship in match racing and he is doing very well. It will be a tough race but we will be strong against him," said the 29-year-old Swede, ranked 15 in the world.

Regarding her loss, Bjorling said Rahm "didn't give us any opportunity to get out of his grip". She was a boat-length behind when the race started and it was hard to pass though they gained on the Rahm during the race.

"We sailed better and better as the week went on. It's been great and we've learnt a lot about the IOD so if we come back next year I think we can perform better," said the 34-year-old, adding Rahm may have been "fresher" than her since he started racing on Wednesday while she had been racing since Saturday.