Two old rivals in fitted dinghy racing faced each other in Mangrove Bay over the holiday weekend.

And despite the fact that the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club's Elizabeth stood in first place at the start of Monday's races, stand-in skippers Peter Bromby in Port Royal and Michael Oatley in Victory, helped re-affirm speculation that this year's Coronation Cup is still largely a two-boat race.

In the first race, Victory and Elizabeth managed to surge ahead but Bromby's methodical, unrelenting pressure would soon create the opportunities he needed to win.

The shifty conditions and short course, where one mistake could cost the race, were also ideally suited to Bromby's game plan.

Elizabeth was the first to wilt and from then on Port Royal chipped away at Victory's slim lead, finally overtaking her on the fourth beat to weather.

In the second race, however, a more determined Oatley put an early stranglehold on first place and never looked back. Port Royal finished second followed by Elizabeth and Challenger.

The RBYC's Contest, meanwhile, continued to struggle, often finding herself at the back of the fleet, fending off the young sailors from Sandys Boat Club on board Challenger.

During the second race, in a critical mistake and perhaps a desperate move to create an opportunity, Contest jibbed inside the fleet on the first leeward leg. A noisy pile-up ensued at the leeward stakeboat, which Victory, who was clear ahead at this point, used to build an insurmoutable lead over the rest of the fleet.

Contest on the other hand was forced to retire after hitting both Port Royal and Challenger as she attempted to clear both to round the leeward stake boat.