the $100,000 Brut Gold Cup, while another remained for at least one more day.

Peter Bromby, viewed as the Island's best hope, and Glenn Astwood were both shown the exit during first-round action in Group One yesterday morning.

However, the Group Two afternoon matches produced the most talk -- and confusion -- with Island skipper Adam Barboza firmly in the thick of things.

Matched against number seven seed Markus Wieser of Germany, Barboza trailed his rival across the finish line on three occasions, yet found himself just 1-0 down as one race was nullified and the other ordered re-sailed.

Leading handily during the first match, Wieser blundered while advancing along the first downwind leg, colliding with Johan Peterson of Sweden, who was involved in a match against American Ed Baird, and was disqualified. Barboza, though, was not awarded the win and the score remained 0-0.

More confusion followed for the second outing as both started prematurely, but a delay in raising the yellow flag to enlighten Wieser on his transgression -- the blue flag was raised in a timely fashion to signal the Bermudian -- resulted in a redress being ordered and the score remained 0-0.

In the end the pair were able to officially complete a match before a halt was called to the day's proceedings and it was Wieser winning a close affair.

Meanwhile, the morning session proved disastrous for Bermuda as Bromby crashed out after he came up against red hot German Jochen Schumann and lost 3-1.

Schumann goes on to face three-time Gold Cup winner and top seed Russell Coutts of New Zealand in one of tomorrow's quarter-final match-ups.

Coutts earned his way to the round of eight by ousting Team New Zealand teammate Murray Jones 3-1 -- but predicted he would have his hands full against Schumann.

"These (IOD) boats should suit him, they're kind of similar rigging to a soling,'' the New Zealander said.

"He looks pretty comfortable sailing the boats and at the moment I would have to say that I'm not that comfortable, so I think we'll have to lift our game a bit in the next round.'' The end came swiftly for Astwood, as Chris Law baptised the neophyte in the tactics of pre-start manoeuvring, constantly pressuring him into false moves and taking full advantage once the gun sounded.

Astwood later admitted to being somewhat overwhelmed by the tactics of the Briton, but was pleased with his overall showing.

"We can't be ashamed of what happened,'' said Astwood. "Basically, where he got us was in the pre-start, he always had us on the defensive and from not ever doing it before we didn't know how to react to the things that he was doing.

"We were always running and he was always pushing us away from the line.

"It's a big difference from qualifying -- like chalk and cheese -- these (seeded) guys are the best in the world and as far as I'm concerned I'm a nobody in match racing.'' The other morning series resulted in Frenchman Thierry Peponnet squeezing past Per Petterson of Sweden 3-2 in the only match to go to five.

Going through in the afternoon were defending champion Peter Gilmour of Australia, who disposed of Russia's Andrey Nikolaev 3-0, and Peter Holmberg, who beat Henrik Lundberg by a similar margin.

Ed Baird and Peterson, like Barboza and Wieser, will complete their series today, with Baird leading 2-1.

TROUBLED WATERS -- Bermuda boats skippered by Glenn Astwood (top) and Peter Bromby (above, standing) were yesterday knocked out of the Brut Gold Cup.