For Jesper Radich, coming up against Paula Lewin was the best and worst thing to happen in his quest to repeat as King Edward VII Gold Cup champion.

In the wake of conquering Lewin - the pride of Bermuda - 3-0 in yesterday's quarter-finals in Hamilton Harbour, the affable Dane admitted he felt like he was up against all of the Island given Lewin's popularity.

Common sense, however, told him she would present the path of least resistance into today's semi-final - and so it was.

"On one hand, she's obviously the local favourite and an excellent sailor who has been doing very well.

On the other hand, she is the least experienced of the top names we could have got. We knew we had a very different fight in front of us, fighting the whole of Bermuda," said Radich chuckling.

"We just focused on our own game; just doing what we're good at - sailing fast and clever. It paid off big time and with every race I'm feeling better about the boats."

His sweep of the lone local left in the running earned the 28-year-old an early morning and the luxury of sunbathing atop a spectator vessel, watching his sailing peers try to join him in the last four.

Congratulating her rival, Lewin conceded that the 2002 winner and his crew "did a better job of sailing the course" than she and hers. He was tactically superior, she added.

"We were pleased with our pre-starts. We handled our sails well. The only thing was that we didn't do such a good job on the final approach (to the start) which is the key and in the first two races we let Jesper start better than us when we had him pinned."

In addition, she noted Radich left her little opportunity upwind and protected the pressure he was getting. This made it difficult for the Bermudian skipper to try and erode his leads.

Despite being ousted from the regatta proper Lewin will vie for positions five through eight today and her aim now is to improve on her seventh-place finish last year.

Reaching a second successive quarter-final at this level as well as retaining the Bermuda International Women's Match Racing Championship last Tuesday, the 32-year-old said, were a thrilling experience and a shot in the arm for women's sailing.

If Lewin's loss was a hometown tragedy, then Russell Coutts' demise was the upset of the event.

However, given Peter Gilmour's credentials, the Australian might have begged to differ as he banished his New Zealand neighbour to much lower honours than the three-time America's Cup champion is accustomed.

Gilmour's sound 3-1 victory immediately installed him in many on-lookers' views as the favourite yet the 43-year-old was reluctant to embrace that sentiment.

"There's still a lot of racing to do. Yes, we've got a 25 percent chance now so it's looking good but Jesper is the champion and he has been doing well recently. We will be mindful and respectful of that," he said, referring to his semi-final clash with Radich.

In his success over Coutts, Gilmour won the first two races - the second in a nail-biting finish as he completed a penalty turn and crossed the line just in time - before the Kiwi replied by taking the third. In the fourth race, it was all Gilmour from start to finish.

"We're sailing really smoothly and we were very settled in the boat. The importance was the starts. We won three (starts) and lost one and that pretty much decided the outcome," said the winner.

Coutts agreed wholeheartedly, acknowledging that poor starts cost him.

"I didn't start well or at least not the last 30 seconds of the starts. You had to start well on that course.

"It was a pretty biased course and whichever boat got in front was generally able to capitalise. That's what it boiled down to," said the 41-year-old.

In the bottom half of the competition two other New Zealanders booked a date with each other for today's other semi-final.

Dean Barker (30) easily dismissed American Bill Hardesty's challenge 3-0, while Chris Dickson came from behind twice to rout last year's runner-up Jes Gram-Hansen 3-2.

"I wouldn't say we are error-free. There's improvements we can make but every time you race you have an equal chance of winning so we're going to try to keep enjoying it. It's certainly been a lot more fun that the last few times we've been here," said Barker.

Noting he was either "ahead making mistakes or behind trying to catch up", 28-year-old Hardesty said he never felt like he "got the boat going".

Gram-Hansen and Dickson endured an agonisingly long day with their five races stretching until 3 p.m. due to various interruptions, including two abandoned starts in the final race.

"Then we got a penalty and were leading and had to get rid of the penalty. It all came good for us but we had to work very hard to come out with that last win," said Dickson, recalling what happened when the fifth race finally took place.

"We're very happy to have made it to the semi-finals. A lot of very good crews are already on their way home."

The two-time Gold Cup winner expects his fight with Barker to "go down to the wire" but is confident his team is coming into form.

"By the last few races today it was really gelling for us. We've been struggling a bit but we were really hitting our stride by the end of the day. We're ready to go racing now," he declared ominously.

Gram-Hansen was bitterly disappointed in defeat, saying he felt slighted by some umpiring calls which he termed "surprising".

"Having him (Dickson) pinned out in the last start and he clearly gibes in front of us and ends up winning the start and only getting a penalty - quite rarely you see that not be a double penalty or a red flag."

Regardless, the 32-year-old praised his crew for sailing well and for great boat handling.

"Our starts were good and it's some of the best match racing we have done this year.

"It's been up and down this year but sailing the way we did today is a big step back towards what we know we can do."