Adam Barboza and Glenn Astwood joined seeded Bermudians Paula Lewin and Peter Bromby in the King Edward VII Gold Cup yesterday.

The pair gained entry to the competition by making the best of five race final of the Gosling's Black Seal Cup, with Barboza coming out on top 3-0 to claim his first national championship in match racing.

Barboza, in fact, completed an undefeated weekend in the competition, after winning all five of his round robin races on Saturday and then sending Tim Viney on his way with another 3-0 score in yesterday morning's semi-finals.

Barboza was keen to give his crew credit after his victory that pitches him into the Gold Cup qualifiers with Jessi Cuthbert, the 26th ranked woman in the world from the UK, Peter Hall of Canada, and Americans Bill Buckles, Andrew Horton and David Whelan, along with Astwood.

"It was the team who sailed particularly well,'' said a modest Barboza afterwards, while admitting his task had been made easier by the absence of Peter Bromby, competing in the Star Italian Open regatta.

"There's no doubt he was missed,'' he said. "Peter is a step above the rest of us, and you always learn something from him even if you get beaten.'' Barboza missed last year's Gold Cup, preferring to run a Soling campaign at the same time, but with the very top match racers away concentrating on their America's Cup challenges, he believes that the locals will have their best chance to get their hands on the coveted trophy in the event's 51st year.

"All the Bermudians have got a good chance,'' he said, while dismissing notions that knowledge of local conditions would give them some parity with contenders like Germany's Markus Wieser, ranked sixth in the world and Sweden's Magnus Holmberg, who is currently seventh.

"We don't sail these international one design boats that often so just doing this weekend will help us a lot.'' Barboza, himself, is hoping for another crack at Wieser. "We sailed against him three or four years ago and we did a pretty good job,'' he said.

Astwood, meanwhile, had only dropped one race before being wiped out in the final -- and that was to Barboza in Saturday's round robin stage.

Six local crews entered the contest, with Alexander Kirkland, the 16-year-old who blitzed his way to second in the Bytes world championships a month ago, making a late claim for inclusion.

It wasn't the best of outings for Kirkland, although he will no doubt have learned from the experience -- and he did pick up one victory against Pete Ramsdale who finished with a 0-5 record.

Barboza opted to take on Tim Viney, who had a 2-3 record from the round robin, in the semis and, despite one close race, powered through.

Astwood also had a 3-0 victory in the last four against Pan American Games sailor Christian Luthi.

Luthi took third in the Gosling's competition, overcoming Viney 2-1 in their best of three petit final.

Shifty winds yesterday made competition particularly difficult, with principal race officer Charles Tatem admitting that sailing was almost called off at one point.

"We did think about canning it. It was hard to set a course, we were getting shifts of 30-310 degrees which is pretty big for Hamilton Harbour,'' he said.

Peter Bromby and Lee White were lying in 12th place last night with two days remaining in the Italian Star Open at Punta Ala Yacht Club. A fleet of 69 boats is contesting the regatta.

Undefeated: The consistent Adam Barboza earned a Gold Cup place.