Frenchman Mathieu Richard, the top ranked sailor, got off to a miserable start as the Argo Group Gold Cup began on Hamilton Harbour yesterday.

In the first three flights of the Stage One qualifying round-robin races, Richard (French Match Racing Team), the current leader on the World Match Racing Tour, suffered two critical losses.

Richard was beaten by Canadian Terry Mclaughlin in Team Commonwealth and went down to Great Britain's Lucy Macgregor, current ISAF women's Match Racing World Champion, on the GBR Match Race Girls team.

Richard's only win was over first time Gold Cupper Mike Buckley of the USA.

Buckley was ahead of Richard, the 2007 Gold Cup winner, in the early stages of the race but lost his lead by failing to cover from ahead on the first leeward leg.

Six skippers remain unbeaten after three flights.

Leading Group Two is Rubin Corbett (NZL) Black Sheep Racing with three wins and no losses. Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch also has an unblemished record at 2-0 with one bye for the day.

In Group Three, Torvar Mirsky has two wins, Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar, sponsored by Argo Group, has two wins and Swede Jonnie Berntsson on the Berntsson Sailing Team also has two. Those skippers all had a bye in one flight yesterday and have no losses.

Portugal's Alvaro Marinho with the Seth Sailing Team enjoyed three wins on a perfect day. And he'll even up on numbers when his bye comes around later.

In Groups Two and Three, each team has a bye because the field is only 22 boats, not the full 24-boat fleet. Some of the sailors only raced two races yesterday.

Dane Jesper Radich with the Gaastra Racing Team and Sweden's Bjorn Hansen with Hansen Global Team and Kiwi Phil Robertson on WAKA Racing lead Group One with two wins each.

Taylor Canfield (USA), a 21-year-old skipper from the USVI, defied the odds by winning his first two matches, the second against the seasoned veteran Bjorn Hansen of Sweden on the Hansen Global Team.

Richard's victory against Mike Buckley in his third race yesterday couldn't hide his frustrations and he faces his highest ranked opponents today.

"It was not a good day for us – this is a tricky place to sail and the boats are also difficult. We made some big mistakes and don't feel good right now. We know we must make some changes to have a chance of going through to the quarter-finals."

Britain's Olympian Ben Ainslie on Team Origin – last year's winner of the King Edward VII Gold Cup – came away with only one win in two flights.

His only victory was at the expense of Bermuda schoolboy Lance Fraser (Team TOP's Ltd).

His loss was to 23-year old Ruben Corbett, one of the hottest competitors on the world match racing scene, who was perfect in his first three matches.

StageOne qualifying rounds continue today with three more flights for each group and one more on Thursday. Quarter-finals begin on Friday.