slow start in the second Etchells encounter of Race Week.

His lapse let in the 1990 winner David Jones for an impressive victory over Dennis Correia, who had taken over from Chuck Millican at the helm of KB-15.

Millican, who finished second from last on Sunday, put down his change of fortune to the change of driver! Jones now heads the Etchells fleet from Billy McNiven, who has two third places to his credit thus far.

McNiven, who recovered well after a bad start yesterday, is just a fraction of a point ahead of Patton, with the fleet's only female skipper, Nina Nielsen, not far behind in fourth.

Correia's effort yesterday put him and Millican back into contention, with the other home hope Jack Outerbridge also still in with a chance.

An emphatic win by Bermuda's Peter Bromby in yesterday's first IOD race saw the defending champion stretch his overnight lead.

But Norway's Jan Petter Roed put himself right back into the reckoning with two steady second places to give him second spot overall.

Roed, who has won this event before, followed first Bromby then last year's runner-up Bill Widnall of the US across the line to edge between the two favourites at the head of the fleet.

The veteran Norwegian obviously had his sights set on the Vrengen Gold Cup he donated to Race Week, as he beat Bromby into third place in race two. It was a truly international day for the IODs, with the honours being shared among four different countries.

Scotland claimed third spot in the opener to give John MacDonald and his crew a timely boost going into the last day of the competition for the Bermuda Race Week Championship `A'.

The fate of the first trophy of Race Week will be decided today, with the IODs set to take a break tomorrow before the Norwegian Series `B', which will decide who wins the Gold Cup.

Peter Eastman of the US leads at the halfway stage of the J24 competition.

Back-to-back victories yesterday, added to another victory and a third place on Sunday put him way out in front of his competitors.

Trevor Boyce kept up the local challenge with a third and a fourth place to keep him in second place overall.

Another American, Britt Hughes, rounds out the top three who have broken away from the rest of the fleet going into today's rest day.

Yesterday's second Tornado race will not count towards the series as there were only two non-Bermudian starters. A minimum of three is needed for the race to be accepted as completed.

The non-appearance on the start line of Canada's Larry Woods, who had failed to finish the previous race, was enough to leave the fleet lacking its required number of non-Bermudians.

So the first victory of the week for Bermuda's Olympic challengers Reid and Jay Kempe will not help them in their quest for Race Week honours.

They ruined Alan Burland and Chris Nash's unbeaten record but it will not count at the end of the day.

What will count is Burland and Nash's victory yesterday morning, which gave them three wins in a row.

The Kempes were second and Malcolm McBeath and Gordon Burland third. McBeath also filled third spot in the race, which will not count.

Two more races are scheduled for today, with the final race of the series set for tomorrow morning.

Bermuda's David Summers held on to fourth, but dropped further behind the leaders in the Luders fleet, which is proving one of the closest of the classes being contested this week.

Canada's George Hughes holds a narrow lead from Sunday's race winner Jim Scott of the US going into the third day of competition.

Brian McDonah of Canada pulled himself up into third place overall yesterday with a victory that made up for a disappointing seventh in the opening race.

Former winner Bill Buckles of the US is threatening to sail away in the Snipe class after winning both races at the Spanish Point Boat Club.

Buckles and crew Fred Hunger cruised home first in both races ahead of countryman Henry Filter.

Bermuda's Stevie Dickinson was similarly consistent with two third-place finishes while last year's Sunfish champion Malcolm Smith was fourth on both occasions.

Defending champion and pre-race favourite Jerry Thompson wound up a disappointing ninth in the first race and only improved to fifth the second time around.

There was no surprise among the Sunfish as seven-time winner Donny Martinborough of Bahamas celebrated his return to Bermuda's shores in familiar style with two wins following a one-year hiatus .

Main challenger, American Alan Scharfe was able to pressure Martinborough in the first race before settling for the number two spot, but ran into trouble in the next race and failed to finish.

Bermuda's Howard Lee took up the slack left by Scharfe, crossing the line as the runner-up in race two, bettering his effort in race one by one position.

Another local aspirant David Frith lies third after the the opening day of races.

ROUGH AND READY -- The J-24 fleet finds the going tough in yesterday morning's racing in the Great Sound.