saw his dream of advancing to the quarter-finals erased in the wake of a rampant Markus Wieser of Germany.

Wieser downed Barboza 3-0 as the Bermudian joined the ranks of comrades Peter Bromby and Glenn Astwood as first round casualties, with the latter pair eliminated by Jochen Schumann and Chris Law respectively during their best-of-five series on Wednesday.

Barboza and Wieser were forced to complete their series begun the day before after two controversial incidents that resulted in juries being convened, causing delays.

The result was a 1-0 lead for Wieser after three races, one of which was nullified, while the other was ordered re-sailed and won by the German.

And the Bermudian noted there to have been some residue left among his thoughts, obviously feeling that he should have been at least level at 1-1 entering what was officially the second race yesterday morning.

"I don't know, I really wasn't in the right frame of mind. Yesterday just seemed to be a waste of time. We were disappointed at some of the calls we got and that lingers in the back of the mind,'' said Barboza, who could take nothing away from the German, the seventh seed.

"But we got beaten by a better sailor. The only way we could have beaten them was if we got lucky and unfortunately we didn't.

"I hope he wins it all, because it's `nice' to be beaten by somebody who wins it all.'' Barboza and his Team Black Seal crew of Paul Wring, Bob McCutcheon and Steve Cuchiarro still departed with heads held high and with good memories, most as a result of what were stellar performances during the qualifying round robin, where he topped Group Two with a 5-2 record.

"All my memories are fond,'' Barboza continued. "I had a great time and had a good crew. Every time you go out and get beaten you learn something and when you win you learn something, so it's all a learning experience.'' Meanwhile, Wieser saluted his foe in victory, pointing out that winning the series was not nearly as easy as the 3-0 scoreline would indicate.

Indeed, the reigning German match racing champion knew all too well the position Barboza found himself in, having last year finished first in the qualifying round robin, only to be toppled by Paul Cayard in the first round.

He also viewed the elongated series to have been a plus in terms of time spent aboard the International One Design (IOD) craft and getting to better understand the nuances of Hamilton Harbour.

"Today -- and I don't know how many boat-lengths we beat Adam by -- he was very aggressive at the starts and is a very good sailor, but I felt we could win all our starts, come ahead and control him, so it looked easy but it wasn't,'' said the congenial skipper, who had Eberhard Magg, Tim Kroger and Kelvin Harrap aboard as crew.

"We did a lot of match racing the last two weeks, so we had a lot of practice and maybe that allowed us to be a little better than he.

"We have sailed more than the other guys and it has been good training for tomorrow when we face Ed Baird. We feel like we're in good shape, but we know it's going to be tough tomorrow.'' Second seeded Baird, of Florida, also advanced yesterday by beating Swede Johan Peterson 3-1 in another series that was held over a day -- Baird led 2-1 when racing was halted on Wednesday.

Remaining quarter-final match-ups have defending champion and third seed Peter Gilmour facing number six Peter Holmberg of the United States Virgin Islands, Frenchman Thierry Peponnet meeting Britain's Law and favourite Russell Coutts of New Zealand tackling the in-form Schumann, who has won 10 of his 11 matches to date.

Six Bermudians are set to fly south today, but flying will be the last thing on their minds once they arrive in Dominican Republic, as the water takes centre stage.

The sextet will be taking part in the Sunfish World Championships that commence October 13 and involve some 115 skippers.

Leading the Bermudia contingent is Malcolm Smith, the defending champion and again one of the favourites.

Others among the group are Damian Payne, Mickey Berkeley, Steven King, David Frith and Jaimie Harvey.

CHARITABLE GUY -- Defending Brut Gold Cup champion Peter Gilmour of Australia (centre) poses with 12-year-old Paul Sawden (left) and 11-year-old Tiffany Thorne prior to sailing in yesterday's Bank of Butterfield Charity Race in Hamilton Harbour. Gilmour, sailing for the Bermuda Diabetes Association, placed second in the three race series, which was won by Germany's Jochen Schumann, who carried the banner of the Bermuda Red Cross.