Peter Bromby's already slim hopes of defending his Bacardi Cup crown in Florida were literally blown away yesterday after a sudden wind shift on the second windward leg left the Olympian dead in the water.

Up until that point Bromby and crew Martin Siese were enjoying a handy lead over arch rival and current overall race leader Mark Reynold who was placed in 20th position at the time.

"We had quite a change in fortunes today when midway through the race we were leading and all the competitors we needed to beat were at the back of the fleet," said Bromby.

"At that stage we still had a shot of winning the regatta, but there was a tremendous wind shift around the second windward leg that put us back into sixth or seventh place and allowed Mark to move into the lead."

Now effectively out of contention, Bromby did, however, manage to place seventh in the race and move up to eighth in the standings ahead of today's final races.

"In the end, we didn't get many breaks today on the course. In fact, for the week we haven't had many breaks. Last year we won this event and maybe we used some of this year's breaks on the race track because we just haven't had one go our way yet."