It was up early again and sunrise practice for the two crews representing Bermuda on their home waters next week in the 2010 Argo Group Gold Cup.

Blythe Walker is the reigning Bermuda National Match Racing champion and Lance Fraser, the young challenger, will be sailing in the event for the first time.

The pair have been matching up this week, before work for Walker and most of the crew, and before studies for Fraser, who is still in high school.

The schoolboy will be the youngest sailor to ever skipper a boat in the Gold Cup competition.

Sailing with Walker for Team RenRe will be his regular crew of Adam Barboza, Somers Kempe and Will Thompson.

Fraser's TOP's Ltd team will have Gareth Williams, Jorge Chiaparro and Bermuda's Olympic hopeful Rockal Evans on board.

They've all been on the water this week, getting in early practice before the island invasion by the world's top ranked international professional sailors, most of whom are part of the World Match Racing Tour.

Racing starts on Tuesday and concludes next Sunday.

Tour leader Mathieu Richard was also scheduled to be on the water yesterday for his first practice in IODs this year.

This weekend he will be joined by many of the other Tour leaders who arrive early to get dialled in to sailing the International One Design sloops used in the Bermuda classic.

The IODs are very different from the agile speedsters sailed in the other eight Tour events. The full-keeled boats, designed after the original six metre boats, take special handling skills, requiring anticipation, teamwork and a deft touch on the helm to execute manouevres for the most speed and tactical advantage.

In all, 22 teams will be vying for Gold Cup honours . . . and a share of USD$100,000 in prize money. The winner takes half of that purse.

The top five sailors in the ISAF 'open' rankings, who are also the top five on the World Match Racing Tour, and Lucy MacGregor, recent winner of the ISAF Women's World Match Racing Championship, will be in the fleet.

For the qualifying round robin matches, the teams will be divided into three groups. Based on Tour and ISAF rankings, each group has a top seed heading their list and then the remaining group teams follow up and down the ladder in the divisions.

Qualifying rounds within these groups are scheduled from Tuesday until mid-day Thursday. Six of the quarter-finalists will be determined by the top two in each group. The remaining two quarter-finalists are selected in a repechage of the next two in each group in a six-boat qualifying round robin.

The finals are scheduled for October 11 along with the final race of the Ren Re Junior Gold Cup, the international junior invitational Opti regatta held in conjunction with Gold Cup.

The Argo Group Gold Cup is followed on the World Match Racing Tour by their prestigious season ending finale – the Monsoon Cup sailed for the Tour Championship in Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia which starts on November 30.