the Bermuda Gold Cup were given a boost last night when his opponent in the last 16, Jochen Schuemann, admitted he had struggled with the IOD (international one-design) boats in yesterday's warm-up for the championship proper.

And World Sailor of the Year Schuemann, from Germany, who advanced through the qualifiers to beat Bromby at the same stage last year, agreed the re-match was a tough draw for him.

Schuemann yesterday trailed in last in the $5,000 round-robin Bermuda Commercial Bank Challenge, which serves as competitive acclimatisation for the main seeds.

He confessed later: "I think it was obvious we struggled to get used to these difficult boats.'' Extra lead in the keel makes the IOD vessels heavier than some other classes of yacht used for match racing.

Schuemann went on to say: "We have the same pairing as last year so it's going to be a very difficult start for me again.'' Australia's Peter Gilmour, the World Match Racing champion, who returns to Bermuda to try to regain the title he won in 1995, did his hopes no harm by landing the $3,000 top prize.

The number two seed, who takes on Russian Andrew Arbuzov first up, couldn't hide his desire to prise the title from New Zealand's four-time winner Russell Coutts when he said afterwards that the Gold Cup "must rank as one of the world's top sailing events''.

But he suggested the conditions would favour the qualifiers, saying: "Those who are not seeded have had several days of good racing, while we have had one.'' Third seed Eddie Baird, of America, who takes on Briton Andy Green today agreed: "It was wild out there today,'' he said. "It was pretty shifty and we're looking forward to an exciting week.'' Bermuda's other hope, Adam Barboza, takes on Sweden's Magnus Holmberg in the best-of-five series.

Bermudian Zan Kirkland came a creditable 13th out of 104 boats in the New England Fall Championships.

The Optimist Dinghy regatta comprised seven races and after the first day of four races he stood fourth overall, but a mistake in one race, when he went to the wrong weather mark and lost 18 positions, cost him dearly.

The regatta was won by Peter Young of Connecticut who will be in Bermuda next summer for the North American Championships.

Gold Cup draw Opening-round draw for today's Bermuda Gold Cup in Hamilton Harbour. All matches are best of five: (Seeds in parentheses) Russell Coutts (1), New Zealand v John Burnham, United States Andy Beadsworth (8), Britain v Gavin Brady, Hong Kong Magnus Holmberg (5), Sweden v Adam Barboza, Bermuda Peter Holmberg (4), US Virgin Islands v Nigel Cochrane, Canada Ed Baird (3), United States v Andy Green, Britain Luc Pillot (6), France v Murray Jones, New Zealand Jochen Shuemann (7), Germany v Peter Bromby, Bermuda Peter Gilmour (2), Australia v Andrew Arbuzov, Russia