Bermuda's Paula Lewin moved into contention for top honours yesterday at the 2003 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship.

She jumped four places from sixth to second overall with a fifth-place finish in the only race of the penultimate day of sailing in Annapolis, Maryland.

Now on 53 points from seven races, the 32-year-old is 20 points adrift of American rival Sally Barkow who leads the regatta in Chesapeake Bay with the low total of 33 points. Another American, Carol Cronin, is just two points behind Lewin in third on 55 points.

Overnight leader and five-time Rolex winner Betsy Alison of the USA saw her chances of a sixth title dashed when she was among competitors who suffered a black-flag penalty which dropped her to 15th overall.

Aggressive winds between 18 and 25 knots and packing 30-knot punches gave the 66 four-person crews tremendous trouble to keep their 22-foot boats under control.

Several teams experienced nightmarish scenes - harrowing knockdowns that tossed crew members overboard while pinning masts to the water and exposing white underbellies of hulls. This was enough for the race committee to cancel the second race and send everyone back to the dock.

Those who maintained concentration and kept control of their boats were rewarded with advances in the standings. Barkow sailed confidently, faltering only once during a spinnaker set and now enjoys a sizeable lead heading into today's final races.

"Our whole game plan at the start was that we didn't need to be top five off the line if it meant we'd get black flagged," said Barkow. "We just wanted to be in the top 20. If there had been a line sag I would have gone for it, but there was no reason to get aggressive."

The race committee will be hoping to get three races in today to complete the ten-race series.

"With the right conditions they will try for three races but it depends. The only time factor is that no racing can start after 3 p.m. Racing can go past 3 p.m. once it started before 3 p.m.," explained media liaison officer Dana Paxton.

Over the past weekend seven young Bermuda sailors competed in the 2003 Atlantic Coast Championships held at the Brant Beach Yacht Club in Brant Beach, New Jersey.

The regatta consisted of a 203-boat fleet made up of competitors from Bermuda, Canada and the USA. The Bermuda team, coached by Argentine Pablo Weber, was a partial group of sailors as half of the contingent, together with their local coach Paul Doughty, were grounded when the airport was unexpectedly closed last Friday because of the threat posed by tropical storm Juan.

Saturday saw some good racing, however, and as there was no wind on Sunday it meant the results of the previous evening stood.

William Hutchings placed 19th overall and third in the blue fleet, Cameron Pimentel 26th overall and fourth in the blue fleet, Peter Miller 35th, Eleanor Gardner 39th, Ryan Saraiva 74th, Johnny Norfleet 75th and Alistair Hutchings 146th. Six of Bermuda's seven sailors placed in the top half. The event was won by Matthew Archibald from Canada.