English pair Ian Williams and Ben Ainslie and Sweden's Johnie Berntsson all took route one to the King Edward VII Gold quarterfinals on the back of some dominant sailing in Hamilton Harbour yesterday.

Three-time Olympic Gold medalist Ainslie extended his unbeaten win streak to 6-0 while reigning World Match Racing Tour champ Williams progressed to 5-0 and Berntsson, who lost to Bermuda's Blythe Walker the day before, improved to 5-1.

Ainslie continued his dazzling run of form in brushing aside Swede Mattias Rahm, who went 0-3 yesterday, Williams breezed to convincing wins over Denmark's Rasmus Viltoft, Aussie Keith Swinton, and Kiwi Adam Minoprio, while Berntsson dealt with recently crowned Troia Portugal Match Cup winner Sebastien Col, American Don Wilson and Aussie Torvar Mirsky – currently the fourth ranked match race skipper in the world.

"We did a reasonable job and had some close races as well and it should be interesting moving forward," the undefeated Ainslie said.

"It's certainly been a team effort and I think everyone would agree that the conditions are difficult here in the harbour.

"It takes everybody in the boat to get us around the track and keep yourself calm when you get on the wrong side of a 50 degree wind shift which hurts. But we did a reasonable job of picking the shifts."

Williams, who still has a match in hand with American Andrew Horton, also continued his rich vein of form in yesterday's shifty conditions.

"We have been staying out of trouble and sailing the boat fast and smooth.

"We've also had some good tactical calls and picked up a few lucky shifts I guess - or maybe they were skilful shifts," the current ISAF World Match Racing Tour champ said.

"Either way we have been on the right side of them and been fast and able to stay on top."

There would, however, be no such joy for Bermuda's sole Gold Cup hopeful Walker (2-4) who has only pride to race for in his final group match today against Wilson having been eliminated yesterday from the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) sanctioned event presented by Argo Group.

The 1992 Olympic veteran got off to a promising start yesterday with victory over France's Pierre-Antoine Morvan before stumbling against American David Perry and Switzerland's Eric Monnin to put paid to all hopes of progressing to knockout stage of the prestigious regatta for the third straight year.

"We just had a tough time getting around the course today," Walker lamented.

Also eliminated yesterday were Americans Christopher Van Tol, Sally Barkow, Brian Angel and Jon Singsen, Denmark's Viltoft and Canadian Erik Koppernaes.

Today's schedule of Gold Cup racing will determine the five remaining quarterfinal berths of which three will automatically advance upon completion of the initial round robin group phase, leaving six teams to battle in a repechage for the two remaining quarterfinal spots.

Defending King Edward VII Gold Cup champion and world number one Mathieu Richard was also unflappable yesterday, reeling off three straight wins against USA's Angel and Van Tol and Swede Rahm to progress to 5-1 overall.

Richard will meet compatriot Damien Ihel (5-1), who was also 3-0 yesterday, today with the eventual winner automatically advancing from Group One through to the quarterfinals.

"It was a very good day. We had very good starts and sailed well around the course," Richard said.

Another intriguing battle on tap this morning is in Group Three where the eventual winner between Col and Mirsky will join Berntsson in the quarters.

The King Edward VII Gold Cup, now the eighth stage of the World Match Racing Tour sailed for the match racing world championsip, is the oldest match racing competition in the world for one design yachts.

The trophy presented to the winning team was originally given at the Tri-Centenary Regatta in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America.

Through the years Bermudian sailors have won the coveted showpiece 21 times, with Gordon Lucas the last local to do so in 1986.