Jeppe Borch and Oscar Engstrom were the stars on the opening day of the 2026 Bermuda Gold Cup, finishing with five wins from their six matches.

The Scandinavian skippers mastered light winds and the new Fareast 28R keelboat fleet in Hamilton Harbour, and Borch was delighted to be back at the event after a two-year absence.

“It was super tricky conditions and the wind shifts were all over the place, so basically it was anyone's game,” Borch said.

“We might as well roll some dice in here on shore, but it is nice to be sailing, I don’t think anybody here has found out how to sail either the boats or the venue, so we can all improve tomorrow.”

“It’s super nice to be back here in Bermuda. We had to bail out two years ago because I got a concussion and couldn't get here last year, so it's nice to be back.”

Aurelien Pierroz is a newcomer to the Gold Cup but proved that his inexperience is no barrier to success with four wins in his six matches.

“We’re happy with the day and it was a very good start,” said Pierroz, whose team proved adept with the symmetric spinnakers that are in use for the first time on the fleet.

“It was our first day with the symmetrical so now we know how to manage it and tomorrow we’ll keep on doing our best to win the last matches.”

Chris Poole, seeking his first win in the Bermuda Gold Cup, finished the day with three wins from his six matches but was angry with the umpires after being on the wrong end of a tight finish with Pierroz.

Pierroz, racing with a penalty, was forced to make a turn just before the finish line as Poole closed in, with the American skipper disappointed by the actions of the umpires, who he felt changed their minds over a decision to penalise Pierroz for a second time.

“We felt that the head of Pierroz’s kite was above the gooseneck when he tacked,” Poole said.

“The umpires initially put the blue [penalty flag] down but then they put the blue back up and when an umpire makes a call, that’s the call and it has to stay up, so he crossed the line with a penalty still flying and the win should have gone to us.

“It was a mistake by the umpires and apparently I learnt something new. After 13 years of match racing, apparently umpires can put down penalties that they put up if they made a mistake, which I’ve never seen happen before.

“They felt that he hadn’t completed his turn, put a blue back up, the race committee saw that and gave us a yellow, so we thought we had the win. Then apparently they somehow could unwind that, which I’ve never seen before.”

Despite that controversy, Poole is still in the hunt for a top-four spot that will secure a place directly in the quarter-finals.

“We’re really happy with our boat speed and how we're starting, so we’re going to keep improving on that and trying to engage less with umpires.”

Johnie Berntsson, who is seeking an unprecedented fourth straight win in the event, has work to do on day two if he is to make it into the top four.

Berntsson lost the first three of his races but clawed his way back with victories over Anna Ostling, Tom Picot and Martina Carlsson in his final three matches.

Day two of the Bermuda Gold Cup will feature eight flights and the remaining 32 matches in round-robin competition.