A bitterly disappointed Peter Bromby lashed the race umpires and threatened to quit match racing altogether after his Pan-Am medal hopes were sunk amid a storm of controversy on the waters off Mar del Plata yesterday.

Ironically, Bromby's ire was even directed at veteran Bermudian adjudicator Dick Kempe whom he claimed contributed to a crucial loss against Canadian rival Ross MacDonald.

That defeat coupled with an earlier penalty-punctuated loss to Chilean Rodrigo Zuazola sealed Bromby's fate on a day in which nothing went his way.

And instead of joining today's four semi-finalists, Bromby with crew Lee White, Dennis Correia and Blythe Walker, will be packing his bags and heading home.

Asked what went wrong, an obviously distressed Bromby replied: "Everything! We missed three flag calls in a row; we picked up penalties we didn't even know we had; we picked up penalties for not taking the penalties. You can't win races like that.

"We had some real bad calls out there. The reason that the umpires are at this regatta is that they're not good enough to be anywhere else. The umpire calls all week have sucked.

"You don't even mind them making a bad call if they make a bad call consistently but you never know what you're going to get from these umpires.

"We've had guys that have tacked with a quarter boat length between us and picked up a penalty for being too close, and then we've had guys that have tacked six inches away from us and have been green flagged. You don't mind them calling it loose or calling it tight, but, please, call it the same every time. There's just no consistency at all with the umpires.

Of Bermudian judge Kempe, Bromby complained: "Dick didn't do us any favours.

We were coming into the start against Canada and there he is right where we are about to enter the gate. In avoiding hitting him, we hit the mark and enter the gate with a penalty. And that's basically how the whole day went.

"We picked up another penalty against Canada and even now we don't know where it came from. We didn't spot any penalty flags at all. It makes for a tough day.

"After this I don't think we'll be doing any more match racing. You just never know what you're going to get with these umpires.

"Put it this way, if the Omega Gold Cup was tomorrow, I wouldn't be doing it.

That's how I feel right now.'' Entering the day with a 5-2 win-loss record in the 11-race J24 elimination series, Bromby had needed to win at least three of his last four races to qualify for today's semis.

But events turned sour for the Bermudian early in the day and victories in the afternoon against Brazil and Venezuela were simply too little too late. By that time Argentina's Francisco Campero, America's Peter Foerster, Canada's MacDonald and Virgin Islander Peter Holmberg, who Bromby had beaten on the opening day, had already wrapped up the four semi-final spots.

After another blustery day when winds gusted as high as 35 knots and a torrential downpour caused organisers to call off the sixth race in the dinghy classes, Paula Lewin remained Bermuda's only hope of a medal.

In the six-boat Europe Dinghy class, Lewin finds herself in the bronze medal position at the half-way mark.

But after a fourth yesterday she slipped further behind class leader Kimberly Logan of the US who has now won four of the five races. Brazil's Marcia Pellicano holds down second spot on 6.75 points compared to Lewin's 13 while Argentina's Serena Amato and Canada's Susan Emerson are just three points behind Lewin and still very much in the medal chase.

"Actually I had a good race today, but I started early and the penalty set me back quite a bit,'' said Lewin. "But I got back to third, and then I capsized, and ended up fourth.

"So I'm going well. I've just got to stop making these silly mistakes.

Of her chances of improving on third, Lewin added: "It's going to be tough.

Kimberly (Logan) is sailing really well, and the Brazilian girl is very good, but I have beaten them before.'' Bermuda's other female sailor at these Games, Elizabeth Walker, again struggled in the rough conditions, placing sixth in the seven-boat Laser Radial fleet to remain in last position overall on 24 points, seven adrift of Canada's Elizabeth Ross and Susan Hallawell of the Virgin Islands. Maria Marcone of Argentina leads with 4.25 points.

In the ten race series, each of the sailors can drop their worst finish.

For Bermuda's Snipe sailor Stevie Dickinson and crew Heath Foggo it was a case of back to the drawing board after yesterday's last place finish in race five.

He now props up the eight-boat fleet with Canada's David Kneulman, both on 25 points.

"I've just got to find out why I can't get this boat to be as fast as everybody else,'' said a dejected Dickinson, who earlier this week had harboured hopes of a medal challenge. "I'll come down before racing tomorrow morning and remeasure everything. There's five races left, we've just got to give it our best shot.'' Malcolm Smith, meanwhile, remained in 11th place overall after finishing 12th yesterday in the 17-boat Laser fleet.

"It was pretty rough out there today,'' he said, "probably as rough as we've had it all week. Every day's a battle for survival.'' DICK KEMPE -- According to Bromby, the Bermuda judge contributed to his crucial loss against Canada.

PETER BROMBY -- Bitterly disappointed Bermuda sailor now threatening to quit match racing.