In vastly contrasting styles and circumstances, Paula Lewin and Peter Bromby advanced from the preliminaries of the Investors Guaranty King Edward VII Gold Cup yesterday.

Lewin, in dominant form from the get-go, topped the standings of the Bermuda International Women's Match Racing Championship qualifier with an unbeaten 7-0 record to breeze into the semi-finals of that regatta this morning.

The hometown defending champion is clearly the one to beat and will be aiming to recapture her title later today, thereby advancing to the Gold Cup proper which starts tomorrow.

While Lewin and company were treating their foreign rivals to a not-so-nice welcome to the Island her compatriot Bromby had to sweat it out as he squeezed into the Gold Cup competition by the narrowest of margins - and with high drama.

In his final preliminary race in Group Two of the Unseeded Skippers - against Andy Green - Bromby was leading his opponent when the latter struck the port side of Bromby's boat, ripping a hole in it. A protest hearing adjudged Green to be in the wrong and awarded the Bermudian a full point.

Having succumbed to world match-racing champion Ed Baird of the USA in his only other race of the day, this result was just enough to see Bromby through. His 4-3 win-loss aggregate left him tied for third with New Zealand's Scott Dickson but Bromby got the vital third and final berth on countback as he had defeated Dickson in their preliminary clash on Sunday.

Baird won Group Two with a 6-1 record and his countryman Bill Hardesty was second (5-2) while New Zealander Cameron Dunn (6-1) topped Group One with Finland's Staffan Lindberg (5-2) and Paolo Cian (5-2) also qualifying.

“We're certainly happy to still be alive to fight. If you look at where we were on Saturday at 0-2 to get through - and considering there's only three spots available (in each group) - to the next round, we're very happy,” said a beaming and very relieved Bromby.

He and his crew “had our hands full” from the start yesterday when their first race against Green was deemed null and void after Bromby had won. However, the tide finally turned in their favour.

“The first (race) was a mix-up on the Race Committee's behalf which ended up in a re-race. In the second race, he (Green) got a penalty on us when we tacked too close early in the race. We were trying to get the penalty off on the last run.

“We left our spinnaker down and he pulled his up and, in the act of him pulling it up and getting it set, I think they didn't see us go into position to lough him.

“By the time he saw us it was too late and he tried to go behind us and crashed into the port side of us,” said Bromby, giving his assessment of the accident.

Green gave a similar account, saying that as he raised his spinnaker Bromby “jibed right in front of us and we crashed into the side of him”.

“It wasn't pretty but that's the way it goes sometimes. We peeled some of the side back off his boat and we were adjudged to be wrong so we were docked a point,” noted the 29-year-old whose memories of this Gold Cup are a far cry from his 1999 victory.

Saying he loved the event, the British sailor joked that he did not know if “they'll have me (back) after I've crashed a boat”.

Despite advancing to the Gold Cup, Bromby can hardly breathe easy as his first assignment tomorrow will be tackling last year's champion Jesper Radich of Denmark.

“There's not really any easy guys. The seeds are all very strong so we're just happy to be alive to go against any of them.

“It was always going to be tough for us this year. This is probably the best field we've ever had here,” noted the 39-year-old, crediting his crew (Christian Luthie, Kees Van Beelen and Leatrice Roman) for getting him through the perilous preliminaries.

A modest Lewin also heaped glory on her crew - Christine Patton (bow), Carola Cooper (pit), Peta Lewin (jib) and Lisa Neasham (mainsail) - for an awesome display on home surf.

“Things are going better than last year and we're doing really well,” she said of the same team she put together for last year's triumph in the first-ever Women's Match Racing Championship here.

“It's been a great three days of racing. I'm very, very pleased. We've been taking races one at a time and trying our hardest. If we keep up with that attitude we stand a good chance of winning tomorrow (today).

“We've just got to continue doing what we've been doing and hopefully it will go our way.”

Lewin, 32, admitted her unbeaten streak would be a significant psychological boost for today when she gets to choose which of the other three semi-finalists - Sweden's Jenny Axhede (5-2) or Americans Sally Barkow (4-3) and Elizabeth Kratzig (3-4) - she faces for a place in the finals.

“It's big. That puts the pressure on other teams. They know in order to beat us they have to do that much better. It's a good position for us to be in,” said the world-ranker sailor.

As for the pressure of performing before her country, Lewin noted she was dealing with it better now than last year. Still, there's a huge amount at stake.

“In the end it's maintaining a calm attitude, calm racing, making the right decisions - that's what wins.

“Yes, it would mean a lot - very much - to retain the Women's championship. It's very, very rewarding to win in home waters. It's not like when we win overseas. Here you get to extend that to almost an entire nation. It's pretty special.”

Bermuda's two other sailors in the Gold Cup preliminaries - Blythe Walker and Adam Barboza - did not advance, both finishing with 2-5 results.

“We had trouble picking shifts and the guys we were sailing against picked them a little better and managed to get ahead and stay ahead,” said Walker who is determined to return next year and try his luck again.