Paula Lewin effectively sailed her way into the quarter-finals of Women's World Match Racing Championships yesterday -- beating the defending champion along the way.

The Bermudian skipper and her three woman crew finished with an impressive 6-1 record after the completion of yesterday's round robin event.

Only one race had been possible the previous day because of the weather off the Florida coast, but conditions were good enough yesterday to enable the stage to be completed.

The 16 crews, who form two groups of eight, were supposed to be competing in a third round robin stage today, but because so much time was lost earlier in the week organisers have opted to forego it.

That meant that last night the bottom four from each group were forced to drop out.

The remaining eight, including Lewin, will now sail in another round robin stage to decide who will race against who in the quarter-finals.

The winner of that stage will race against the bottom-placed skipper, the second placed against the second bottom and so forth.

The Island skipper, sponsored by Tempest Reinsurance, saw off unseeded Carolijn Brouwer of the Netherland's in Tuesday's sole outing but added to her tally with gusto yesterday.

Cordelia Eglin of Great Britain, Cristiana Monina of Italy, Dru Slattery of the USA, Katie Spithill of Australia and defending champion, Denmark's Dorte Jensen all fell to her. Her only defeat came against Hannah Swett of the USA.

Lewin said the races, which were held in light air conditions, had all been close but her victory over Jensen was particularly memorable.

"She was actually leading most of the race, not by very much, and on the final downwind she infringed a rule,'' Lewin said.

"We forced a penalty on her requiring her to take a turn, which gave us the advantage.'' Though overjoyed by her and her crew of Peta Lewin, Leatrice Roman and Lisa Neasham's achievements, Lewin said she would have settled for far less at the beginning of the day.

"Our record is 6-1 and I think we would have been pretty happy with even a 4-3. So I think we are quite pleased,'' she said.

"A lot of the races we weren't initially leading, but we were patient, played the ships right and were smart about the game and managed to pull off some really nice wins.'' Although at the end of the day winning or losing comes down to the calls made out on the water, Lewin paid tribute to the assistance of Bermudian Olympic sailor Pete Bromby, who has flown out to States to cheer on the team.

"He has helped us a tremendous amount,'' she said. "Talking about setting up before the race, making sure everything on the boat looks right and coaching me and picking up on my mistakes.'' As one of the seeded skippers, Lewin was expected to do well.

Asked if she thought she could go all the way, she said: "I would say we are one of the favourites -- one of many.'' Event press officer Andy Rice was more forthcoming about her chances.

"She is looking pretty good at the moment,'' he said. "And she will certainly have the psychological edge knowing that she has beaten the world champion. She doesn't look like she's scared of anybody.'' Weather conditions are expected to be favourable today with winds of 8-10 knots and the temperature in the 70's.