He has positioned himself almost perfectly to lift the K.F. Trimingham Trophy but tomorrow Peter Bromby?s fate in the Etchells Class may well be in another skipper?s hands.

Having won the lone race in yesterday?s shortened day of sailing as Bermuda International Race week continued in the Great Sound, the Island?s top skipper revealed that another court appearance regarding an assault charge facing him could see Glenn Astwood at the helm instead of him on the penultimate day of competition.

Bromby?s ambitions of surging further into the ascendancy against his eight rivals ? particularly the hot-on-his-heels Tim Lynch and Tim Patton ? were frustrated yesterday by light air which limited all classes to a single race each.

?We did what we had to do today but we didn?t get as many points as we would have liked on our competition,? said Bromby, enjoying an early evening relaxing at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

?They are sailing well too but we?re slowly widening the gap and that?s all we can hope for.?

The 40-year-old heads the standings with the low score of six points from four races, including three successive victories following his third place in the opening race last Sunday.

American skipper Lynch ? with Bermudians Michael Oatley and Paula Lewin as crew ? is second on 11 points after holding the runner-up spot yesterday while another local, Patton, is a point back in third.

As for tomorrow?s contingency plan ? after today?s rest day ? Bromby said another seasoned campaigner and fellow Olympian, Astwood, will replace him if he is unavailable.

The latter is ?absolutely? looking forward to the challenge, well aware of the responsibility with which he would be entrusted.

?They are big shoes to fill because Peter is obviously the best sailor out there. If I can give him half a chance to win on Friday then I?ll be very happy. That?s my only objective,? he said.

?My focus is to have a good race. There?s no one individual who I will be watching ? just to have a good race on the boat and beat everybody we can.?

Bromby crew member, Dennis Correia, is confident that things will continue progressing smoothly and that Bermuda will celebrate victory in the Etchells.

?It?s going very, very well. Clive (Thatcher) and I have got back in the boat after not sailing for three years with Peter and we?ve caught on quite quickly. I think we?re doing quite well and he is happy with us,? said Correia who is trimming the main sheet and spinnaker.

?If we keep sailing the way we are, I think we can win.?

Reacting to the possibility of Astwood deputising for Bromby, Patton admitted he would be equally concerned about the relief skipper.

?If that?s the case we would be pretty nervous about Glenn. He has done a lot of Etchells sailing. He has been to the Olympics and he is a very highly regarded sailor and, with Dennis and Clive as crew, Glenn will be a serious threat,? observed the Bermuda Sailing Association president.

However, if Patton can reproduce the grit and determination he showed yesterday, he may well be the one threatening.

?We were badly fouled at the start of today?s race and we were forced over (early) by the guys who fouled us and had to go back and restart,? he recalled of the circumstances which triggered his fighting his way back to third place.

?We were pretty happy with that result in those sort of conditions. We?re still in the hunt and Thursday is going to be interesting.?

Meanwhile, the J-24 Class saw another revival underway as defending champion Stuart Jardine, languishing near the foot of the standings earlier this week, clawed his way to joint third overall with a win yesterday.

According to his good friend Geoff Evelyn, the wily Englishman profited from reading the wind shifts superbly.

?The shifts on the race course were predominantly (to the) right and Stuart is a firm believer in playing every wind shift,? said Evelyn, whose wife Wendy is handling the spinnaker for Jardine.

?Yes, he was tacking and gybing a fair amount and every one of them gave him an advantage for more speed and distance. When he came around the windward mark for the last leg, he managed to gybe ? bring his boat on the inside of John Corliss ? and that gave him a wind advantage all the way to the finish.

?So he was able to slowly inch ahead of John on that last leg which gave him first place today. With his drop, it?s made him tied for third and puts him back in the running.

?Stuart never gives up,?

Turning up shortly after, having gone to refresh himself, a smiling Jardine noted that though it was just one race it required ?a lot of concentration and some luck? because ?the wind was all over the place?.

?That was lucky but I think the leader is still quite a long way in front so we have a lot of work to do. Today helped a lot but we will need lots of first places,? acknowledged the 72-year-old.

Anthony Parker of the USA remains the J-24 frontrunner with 12 points while the Bermudian connection of John Corliss and Todd Olson are second on 15. Jardine and another Island hopeful Mike Lewis are joint third on 22 points.

Having had his redress appeal vetoed by the jury, Dave Allen ? who missed out on three races on Monday because of a broken mast in the day?s first race ? remains anchored at the bottom of the J-24s.

?The jury advised us that a redress didn?t apply to the J-24 fleet. They said that although we could appeal it wouldn?t really make any difference so we would have to take the maximum score. Unfortunately, it means we?ve suffered badly very early on in this week but we?re going to enjoy the rest of the regatta and see what we can do,? said an optimistic Allen, now with 67 points from seven races as a consequence of his misfortune.

Jonathan Pope is still out front in the International One Designs (IOD) with 15 points followed by his American compatriots Charles Van Voorhis on 20 points and Bruce Dyson on 33.

For the first time in the J-105s, Tom Coates witnessed someone other than himself finish first as he had to settle for third. However, the American is well on track to claim the B.W. Walker Memorial Trophy with six points from seven races.

Savouring victory yesterday, John McLeod of Canada solidified himself in second place on 14 points while Bermudians John Brewin and Allan Williams are on 17 with last year?s local winners Mark Cloutier and Adam Barboza on 20.

In the dinghy segment of the regatta, Island skippers Brett Wright and Malcolm Smith are deadlocked for first in the Lasers with 11 points. Sara Lane Adderley is a distant third on 22 points.

Michel Irgens leads the Snipes with 13 points with his brother Stephen in second with 16. Leo Murphy is third with 18.