Bromby to upset the form book, beating number eight seed Markus Wieser of Germany and becoming the lone qualifier thus far to advance to the quarter-finals.

After severe winds washed out racing in the morning it was Bromby who was able to overcome both the forces of Mother Nature and Wieser in a breathtaking opening round series that went to five races before being decided 3-2 in favour of the local.

In what can only be described as a thriller, Bromby clawed his way back after being down two races, taking the next three and earning the right to contest world number one ranked sailor Peter Gilmour of Australia tomorrow.

"Talk about coming off the canvas'' was how race commentator Peter Montgomery succinctly described the situation with Bromby. The Bermudian indeed appeared down for the count following two unsuccessful outings.

And the situation became even more dire, with the Bermudian crossing the start line prematurely at the beginning of the fifth and final race.

However, Bromby was allowed back in the door when Wieser attempted to execute a penalty turn -- the German had fouled Bromby prior to the start -- during the final beat to windward and ended up being penalised again for failing to yield right-of way to the local as the pair rounded the mark.

In frustration Wieser slammed his hand into the craft's deck and complained to the umpires, but it was Bromby and his crew pumping fists at the end signalling victory.

Bromby later admitted to being concerned after falling behind so early in race five.

"Oh, yes, there was doubt,'' said Bromby, as family and friends hugged and kissed the battle-weary sailor. "For that last race I was not sure what would happen. He had a penalty which I thought he would have been smarter to take early when there was more breeze, but he waited until late when there was less breeze and that let us in.

"Being 2-0 down it was not the competition that was beating us, we were beating ourselves by getting in bad positions at the start, and he made us pay.'' The two losses had Bromby behind by almost half a minute in each, but he was able to turn things around against Wieser, this year's European Match Race Soling champion, with his three wins coming by margins of 11, 13 and 37 seconds.

Still, the local favourite realised the sizeable task he now undertakes in meeting Gilmour, the man who recently took over the top position in the IYRU rankings from New Zealand's Russell Coutts.

"We certainly will have to polish our act,'' said Bromby, speaking of himself and his crew of Penny Simmons, Dennis Correia and Lee White.

"He's (Gilmour) not unbeatable, but we have to get it together, we did not sail well enough today to beat Gilmour.'' Meanwhile, the wily veteran, who coaches Japan's Nippon Team, showed why he is considered the best, using a few items from his delicious repertoire to administer a 3-0 white-washing on England's David Bedford.

Once again Gilmour displayed an innate ability to shake off penalties without surrendering position and offering Bedford a match racing lesson.

Gilmour remained low-key about the day's events, but was obviously pleased to have advanced.

"I think that always the first day is probably a pretty hard day,'' said Gilmour. "Those guys came out off that round (qualifying) sailing very well and we didn't by any means think that we would win 3-0, but we're delighted to have done that.

"We had a very close first race, the second race we did a bit better at the start and the third race we broke the start and worked very hard in trying to come back and did a good job, kept the race alive until we could get a wind shift and get ahead of him.'' Also enjoying success on a day which featured wild and crazy conditions was England's Chris Law -- like Gilmour a 3-0 victor -- with his triumph coming at the expense of countryman Andy Beadsworth. Germany's Magnus Holmberg, in a tension-filled affair ousted another qualifier, Stuart Childerley, 3-1.

Today has Bermuda's Adam Barboza attempting to duplicate Bromby's achievement as he faces Rod Davis of Australia, a runner-up last year.

Also featured will be Kiwi Chris Dickson against Ed Baird of the United States, while matches involving Holland's Roy Heiner against Aussie Neville Wittey and England's Eddie Warden-Owen against John Cutler round out the list.