Cup yesterday, while light winds in the afternoon in Hamilton Harbour stalled the bids of fellow Bermudians Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin to follow in his footsteps.

Astwood was one of three skippers finishing with a 4-3 record from seven matches as the elimination of American Paul Cayard proved to be the biggest shock of the day.

Cayard, winner of the recent Whitbread Round the World Race and four-time America's Cup competitor, finished tied with Astwood and Andy Green of Britain but lost out on the tie-break countback.

Green beat Astwood, Astwood beat Cayard and Cayard beat Green which forced the organisers to take into consideration Green's victory over group winner Murray Jones of New Zealand in yesterday's second race which put him through.

It then came down to Astwood and Cayard, with the Bermudian advancing by virtue of his win in the `head to head' clash with Cayard in yesterday's second race.

"We won the start and I guess that dictated the whole race,'' said Astwood of his duel with Cayard.

"It was a close race and the boats never separated by more than two boat lengths for the whole race. We managed the race pretty well, we covered him and sat on him the whole time.'' Astwood was quick to praise the efforts of his crew, Eddie Bardgett, Scott Simmons and Gary Roman.

"They have been great, very competent sailors,'' said the skipper. "The only person I had sailed with before was Eddie. I sailed with Scott but that was as a crew. They are a great bunch of guys.'' The Astwood team started the day by beating Glen Foster, who finished last in the group with just one win, and then lost to Andy Beadsworth -- who tied with Jones with a 5-2 record -- in the final race as Cayard beat Foster in a desperate bid to stay in contention.

"It's a good victory for us and a good feather in our cap,'' said Astwood of the win over Cayard. "It was one of our better victories in match racing.'' Astwood and his crew will have the day off today and are back on the water tomorrow to take on world number two ranked Briton Chris Law in the championship round. Astwood knows the magnitude of that task! "We raced him two years ago when I got through and he beat us two straights,'' remembers the Bermudian.

"We had some good racing but he was more experienced and beat us. Hopefully we're better prepared this time.'' Astwood has plenty of experience in the event himself, having been a part of Chris Dickson's winning team in 1989.

"I've only ever raced it as a helmsman twice and I've qualified twice,'' added Astwood, who admitted he had a love of this type of racing.

"It's tough because you're battling the elements and your competitor. I love match racing because it pits you against one other person.'' Light afternoon breezes forced an abandonment of races in Group One where Bromby and Lewin are attempting to clinch two of the four qualifying places.

Bromby has a 2-1 record after three races and is in contention while Lewin is in the middle of the group with one win and two losses.

Italian Francesco de Angelis heads the group with three wins out of three while James Spithill of Australia and Dean Barker of New Zealand all have 2-1 records along with Bromby.

Today was initially set aside just for the Bermuda Commercial Bank Challenge and a practice for the seeded skippers. That competition will take place immediately after Group One finishes, said race chairman Charles Tatem last night.

"The wind was coming from every direction you could think of,'' he said of the afternoon conditions which left them with no other option but to postpone.

"People at the leeward end and people at the windward end were flying their spinnakers and the people in the middle had no wind at all. When the weather man said `light and variable' he wasn't joking.'' Other match-ups in the championship round tomorrow as a result of yesterday's results are Murray Jones v seventh seed Neville Wittey of Australia, Beadsworth against sixth seed German Markus Wieser and Green against Peter Holmberg of the Virgin Islands, the third seed.

Photos by Ras Mykkal FIRST QUALIFIER -- Glenn Astwood became the first local qualifier for the championship round of the Bermuda Gold Cup yesterday after finishing with a 4-3 record in Group Two.