Bermudian sailors Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin stoked the Island's hopes of a serious challenge for the Bermuda Gold Cup by advancing to the quarter-finals of the competition yesterday.

Sailing in Group One of the round of 16, Bromby and Lewin booked places in the last eight in somewhat contrasting fashion but with the same end result - the elimination of two seeded skippers.

Despite winning the first race in his first-to-three tussle with Swede Bjorn Hansen, Bromby found himself having to come from behind for a 3-2 victory, after Hansen went ahead 2-1.

In Lewin's case, Lars Nordbjerg of Demark took the first race in Hamilton Harbour only for the winner of the women's qualifier to storm back with three straight wins for a 3-1 rout.

The third Bermudian in the competition, Glenn Astwood, fought desperately in Group Two to keep his ambitions alive after being 2-0 down to Steffan Lindberg of Finland. He came through to win their third and last race for the day to go into today 2-1, needing to win the remaining two races to advance.

"We had the gun at our head. We were down two races and we needed to win the third one and we pulled it out. There were really tough conditions today. It was just so puffy. There was either a lot of breeze or no breeze and it makes things so frustrating," said Astwood.

While the 47-year-old skipper knew nothing about his opponent's pedigree before yesterday, he quickly learnt that Lindberg merits his number 12 world ranking.

"He is pretty tough. I have never raced against him. I didn't know anything about him but he can definitely hold his own."

Speaking with all the confidence he will need to oust Lindberg today, Astwood declared: "Tomorrow (today) we will definitely have two races and we're going to win them both."

Meanwhile, Bromby, who has the luxury of a day off, was relieved to ultimately get the better of Hansen - albeit with the help of some penalty calls.

"Hats off to the umpires who made some great calls," said Bromby, though admitting he was surprised by one call that went his way.

"I was like 'Wow, I am glad to have that call but I am not sure where it came from' but when I got ashore it was explained to me."

While disappointed in some of the umpires' calls, Hansen applauded his opponent's crew for doing "a tremendous job".

"It was five really good races. They had the edge in boat speed on us and I guess that's the main reason they got in front. He was just too fast."

Bromby, 38, meets Sweden's Mikael Lindqvist (who beat American Andy Horton 3-0) in tomorrow's quarter-finals while Lewin faces world number two Jes Gram-Hansen of Denmark who won over Englishman Mason Woodworth 3-2.

Lewin, 31, said she will be taking one step at a time but expects her first Bermuda Gold cup quarter-final to be "a real challenge". Her goal is "to put up a good fight", regardless of the outcome.

Asked how he felt about "racing against Bermuda's favourite", 31-year-old Gram-Hansen said: "That's good. It's going to be tough. Paula's team are great sailors and we don't take anything for granted. We will try to do our best. I am sure we will have some close matches."

As for her success over Nordbjerg, Lewin said she made some important adjustments to her trim after losing the first race and things came together.

"We got our speed fixed and won the next three races. I think we sailed better at the starts and we were able to impose penalties on him in two races which allowed us to come out ahead. The scoreboard makes it look easier than it was. Every race was close. It was never by very much. We had to fight all the way through."

The other female vying for a place in the last eight - Marie Bjorling - is optimistic of her chances against her Swedish compatriot Mattias Rahm, though trailing him 2-1 after winning their first race in Group Two.

"We will give him a match tomorrow (today). We have to sail really well to do it but I think we can beat him," said the 34-year-old. "I am looking forward to it. We have put three penalties on Mattias so tactically we have been sailing really well and we need to continue."

In the other two Group Two match-ups which finish today, Karol Jablonski of Poland leads Englishman Chris Law 2-1 and Denmark's Jesper Radich leads American Tucker Thompson by the same margin.