Paula Lewin's historic entry into the championship round of the Bermuda Gold Cup was short-lived yesterday, ending in disqualification as she bowed out 3-0 against world number four Gavin Brady of New Zealand in Hamilton Harbour.

And Bermuda's other lone competitor, Glenn Astwood, also left the competition when he went down in three straight flights to world number two Chris Law of Great Britain.

Lewin and her crew became the first all-female team to reach the championship round on Tuesday.

But time amongst the big boys was brief after she was disqualified following a collision with Brady in their second race.

The masts of the two boats became entangled and it took some time to separate the boats, which were put out of commission for the rest of the day.

"The collision that occurred is a typical move that you pull in match racing when you want to protect starboard advantage, so the error I guess was just learning the boats and how close you can get,'' said Lewin at last night's press conference.

"The tactic behind it was just to defend the starboard end and we just got a bit too close.'' Lewin admitted the collision with Brady was "pretty horrible''. "We had two good starts against Gavin but he managed to pull off every win,'' she said.

"Normally at this stage we are spectating so it's nice to be a part of it and we're thrilled.'' Brady, who takes on New Zealand's Russell Coutts in tomorrow's quarter-finals, praised his opponent. It wasn't a good day for the Lewin family as her father's boat, Slingshot, was put on the rocks by Coutts earlier between races.

"I want to congratulate Paula and her team, they did a really good job,'' said Brady.

"No one felt that good after race two -- I know we didn't. This may be one of Paula's big crashes but we've had a few and I'm sure it won't be our last.'' There was a thrilling finish to the day's races, the last of which didn't end until 6.35 when world number three Peter Holmberg of the US Virgin Islands and Markus Wieser of Germany, seeded sixth, both came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Britons Andy Green and Andy Beadsworth. The two will now meet in tomorrow's quarter-finals as the Gold Cup shapes up for an exciting weekend of racing.

Holmberg acknowledged afterwards that it was hard work turning the match around.

"It was an enjoyable race against Andy, we enjoyed it,'' said Holmberg. "The same thing happened last year when we got down one-to-two and up against the wall and it kicked us in the butt hard enough that we tried harder.

"Sometimes it takes a kick or a shove to get us going. We got a good start or two and in the end we pulled it off. We look forward to going up against Mr Wieser.'' Wieser, too, had to pull out the stop in three must-win situations to advance to the last eight.

"We lost the first two against Andy but my team and myself, we pushed very hard, so I thank my team for perfect crew work,'' said the German.

"Sometimes you need some luck and everything went right for us. I feel sorry for Andy because he sailed very well today.'' Beadsworth won the start in the deciding race against Wieser but lost the advantage as Wieser won comfortably. Beadsworth was left cursing his luck after letting the lead slip.

"I have to say every time I come to Bermuda I always leave having learned a lot and yet again I'm leaving having learned a lot,'' said Beadsworth, who is ranked number 32 in the world.

"I wonder how much more I've got to learn before I get past this hurdle.

Congratulations to Markus, he sailed very well. He was in a difficult position at 2-0 down and I'm dreadfully disappointed we couldn't convert a 2-0 in to a three-something victory.

"Luck didn't go our way at times but we also made a lot of mistakes and that shouldn't be forgotten -- that we did make mistakes.'' Murray Jones, who finished the qualifying with a 5-2 record, the same as Beadsworth, is the only unseeded skipper in the quarter-finals where he will meet Chris Law.

Jones won in three straight flights against seventh seed Neville Wittey of Australia but can expect a tougher time against Law, the number two seed. "It was pretty nice to come through the qualifier and get through this initial round,'' said Jones of New Zealand.

"We enjoyed beating the Aussies. We managed to get a pretty good start and gave up a a bit of a head start out of the blocks.'' Law was full of praise for Bermudians Astwood and Lewin.

"It's always great to sail against Glenn, he's always got a great smile on his face,'' said Law.

"Paula, bad luck, don't let it knock your confidence. Bermuda, you are building a great sailing nation and it looks like you might have a great Olympic team.'' Coutts beat Dean Barker 3-0 while Peter Gilmour stopped James Spithill and John Cutler got by Italy's Francesco de Angelis 3-2 after de Angelis led 1-0 and 2-1.

Today will see the Margent Aviation Reinsurance Group Pro-Am Regatta at 2.00 with proceeds going to the Bermuda sailing Association.