Bermuda's Peter Bromby is among 13 of the 16 unseeded skippers named by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club to race in the preliminary rounds of next month's Colorcraft Gold Cup.

The skippers will take to the waters of Hamilton Harbour on October 14 and 15 and the eight top qualifiers from this group will meet eight seeded entrants in the first round of the Gold Cup competition on Wednesday, October 17th.

Three slots remain to be filled - the winner of the York Cup Match Race in Toronto, Canada, this weekend, and the top two Bermudian skippers from the Bacardi National Match Race Championship, to be raced in Bermuda on September 29th and 30th.

"With opening competition for the next America's Cup challenge barely a year away, the rivalry between the New Zealand defenders and the challengers is bringing an extra element to the Colorcraft Gold Cup this year," said RBYC Commodore Somers Cooper. "We have attracted an outstanding mix of Cup veterans and newcomers, and are looking forward to a week of close racing and tactical in-fighting to decide this year's champion."

The Bermuda regatta, the oldest match-racing event in the world other than the America's Cup, is also the third venue of the nine-event, year-long Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour.

The previously announced eight seeded skippers are Ed Baird (United States), Dennis Conner (United States), Peter Gilmour (United States), Jes Gram-Hansen (Denmark), Andy Green (United Kingdom), Magnus Holmberg (Sweden), Peter Holmberg (US Virgin Islands) and Bertrand Pac? (New Zealand).

The 13 unseeded skippers are Gavin Brady (Italy), Peter Bromby (Bermuda), Mark Campbell-James (United Kingdom), Christopher Carroll (Australia), M?rten Hedlund (Sweden), Morten Henriksen (Germany), Andy Horton (United States), Thomas Kozyn (US Virgin Islands), Chris Law (United Kingdom), Lars Nordbjerg (Denmark), Ken Read (United States), James Spithill (Australia) and Markus Wieser (Germany).

To be sailed this year for 53rd time, the Colorcraft Gold Cup is raced in 33-foot International One Design sloops on short windward-leeward courses inside Hamilton Harbour, within view of spectators ashore.

The event gets under way on October 14, with qualifying rounds for the 16 unseeded teams. The finals will be sailed on Sunday October 21.