Tim Patton, a veteran of local Etchells sailing, couldn't have asked for a better birthday present on the second day of International Race Week yesterday.

Rebounding from two poor starts, the seasoned competitor painstakingly battled his way through the fleet to sail away with valuable third place finishes in each race.

It was an impressive performance that saw Patton finish the day in a two-way tie for first place with defending local champion Peter Bromby. Also remaining in contention was American Tim Lynch, accompanied by local female Athlete of the Year Paula Lewin onboard as crew. The US sailor currently lies in third place, just a single point behind the leaders.

Bromby continued his resurgence yesterday following an indifferent start to his defence of the KF Trimingham Trophy on Monday. The world-ranked sailor recorded a first and a second place during yesterday's action in the Great Sound to keep things tight at the top of the Etchells' standings.

For birthday boy Patton - when asked how old he was he simply replied "a lot" - there was plenty to celebrate.

"We had a couple of not so good starts today and we had to battle back and we ended up with two thirds," he said. "We're pretty happy with the result given where we were half way through the race. But I would like to see more wind between 18 to 22 knots."

The outspoken veteran also threw out a challenge to the local fleet's reigning monarch, Bromby.

"I would like to go head to head with Peter (Bromby) because he's pretty magnificent in those conditions," added Patton. "It's where we can sail closest to him and can give him as good as he can give us in those sort of conditions. But we are just going to keep digging away because now you are really starting to see why Peter (Bromby) is ranked as high as he's ranked. He's simply a class act."

Bromby produced another vintage performance to make a serious charge for the title.

"I think that we are now in pretty good shape," said the Olympic sailor, pleased with his day's work.

"And with the conditions light as they are it's great for us to get two good consistent races. But I think that Thursday is going to be a tough day as well, given the lighter wind conditions."

Bromby also praised his crew. "Hats off to the guys (Martin Siese and Brian Hillier) that I have sailing with me," he added. "Our team was good and hopefully on Thursday the breeze will not be too light.

Apart from the IOD fleet, the remainder of the classes competing in Race Week have today off. Racing resumes tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in the race for the IOD 'A' series trophy, Bermudian Craig Davis closed in on the coveted prize, thus proving that Monday's exploits were no fluke.

Davis added two second place finishes to Monday's two first to remain in the driver's seat for the trophy. Norway's Jan Petter Roed remained in second place and Great Britain's Giles Peckham in third.

Ironically Roed outfoxed Davis onboard Robert Duffy's boat Encore, which has fast emerged as one of the biggest surprises during this year's regatta, to take line honours during yesterday's second race. Davis had captured the first two races of the 'A' series on Monday on the same boat, formerly known as Blackmagic.

"Old number five beat us in the last race," conceded Davis. "She was going very fast and we didn't cover her properly and they got a wind shift that we didn't get."

But other than that minor hiccup, Davis was pleased with the day's pickings. The Bermudian is now heavily favoured to wrap up the first IOD race series today.

"Crew work was great and actually I just sat there and drove the boat," he added.

Roed was simply delighted to have been able to skipper Duffy's craft which has now captured three of the first four races in the series.

"Blackmagic worked," he said with a smile. "She's fast and has new sails and she's well rigged and overall a good boat."

Things remained evenly poised in the race for the J-24 Gripper Trophy with Bermuda's Trevor Boyce and Canada's Rudy Wolf locked in a two-way tie for first place while Wolf's compatriot Sean McDermott remains in third, two points adrift of the lead pair.

"It was a great day as we had good winds," said Wolf. "The fleet was well spread out and there was great competition. We had great team work on our boat which allowed us to make gains at every mark rounding and every start."