It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for Bermuda's sailors as qualifying competition for the Investors Guaranty King Edward VII Gold Cup began in Hamilton Harbour.

Heading into today's final preliminary races the deck is stacked 50-50 for the Island's four representatives.

On one side, Paula Lewin has virtually booked her place in the semi-finals of the Bermuda International Women's Match Racing Championship - therein taking a giant step towards reaching the Gold Cup - while Peter Bromby has reasonable prospects of advancing from Group Two of the Unseeded Skippers.

However, the outlook is pretty bleak for their comrades, Blythe Walker and Adam Barboza. The latter is out of the running while Walker has a narrow chance of staying alive, depending heavily on the performances of others in his group.

Lewin began the defence of her Women's Match Racing title in no-nonsense fashion, striding to an impressive 4-0 winning record in the round-robin competition against seven of her top international rivals.

Today, she faces Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands and Americans Elizabeth Kratzig and Deborah Willits, seeking a clean sweep and the advantage that comes with leading the rankings as the top four head into the semi-finals with the finalists going on to the Gold Cup.

"At this point being undefeated, yes, we would like to finish at the top of the pile so we can have that luxury of choosing our opponent (in the semi-final).

"In this format, once the semis start, you throw all these preliminary results away so it's nice to recoup some benefit from sailing well in the early rounds," reasoned the 32-year-old.

Reflecting on her success in the International One Designs (IODs) thus far, the 2002 Female Athlete of the Year said Saturday was a "fairly easy day" while yesterday was "definitely tougher" as she battled the accomplished Swede Jenny Axhede and Betsy Alison of the USA.

"We were very pleased with how we sailed. We controlled both starts and both races and won so it was a promising performance for us."

While Lewin is sitting pretty, Bromby still has a lot of work to do in Group Two of the Unseeded Skippers as he is among three sailors with a 3-2 record while American Ed Baird - the world match-racing champion - is out front with a stainless 5-0 record so far.

Given that only the top three from either group advance to the Gold Cup proper, Bromby must win one of his two remaining races today against Baird and 1999 Gold Cup champion Andy Green.

This may seem daunting but there are two pieces of good news. The first is that Bromby actually has a chance after starting abysmally on Saturday by losing his first two races before reeling off three wins yesterday and that Green - for all his accolades - has done miserably here so far and is 1-4 in competition.

"I must say there's quite a difference between yesterday (Saturday) when we were 0-2 and today. Our heads were all hanging low (on Saturday). It was a tough day.

"We're 3-2 now and - other than Ed Baird - in our group it's quite a mixed bag of results so it's all very close and there's still plenty of racing tomorrow.

"We have two of the tougher competitors and realistically we need to win one of those races to have a shot. I think it would be hard for us to win one and not go through but it's by no means a comfortable position we find ourselves in," said 39-year-old Bromby.

Terming racing conditions "very tricky", he noted it would benefit his crew to continue in the regatta as they are "getting better and better with each race".

Walker, who incidentally defeated Bromby in their race on Saturday, is one of two sailors in Group Two at 2-3, with slim odds of going further.

"With our current standings it would be pretty difficult for us to continue through unless a lot of other people lose. We have no guarantee but our goal is to win our other two races," said the optimistic 35-year-old.

"The guys who are down here are top-notch sailors and their mistakes are few and far between.

"We had a little trouble with our starts - our time and distance were a little off. We found ourselves over the line (early) twice and that didn't help our results. Hopefully, it will be a bit better tomorrow."

In Group One of the Unseeded Skippers, Barboza will simply be racing for pride as it's impossible for him to overcome dismal 1-4 results thus far.

"Oh yes, we're out of the running," he said bluntly. "We figured we had to win five races just to get out of the group stage and with only the top three advancing it was going to be difficult from the get-go.

"We're disappointed but the level of competition is so good that local knowledge is becoming less and less of a factor."

The 35-year-old noted he and his crew had "been in every race" but just did not have any luck.

Three sailors in Group One have already staked strong claims for berths into the Gold Cup with 4-1 records so far. They are New Zealanders Cameron Appleton and Cameron Dunn and Paolo Cian of Italy.