Penny Simmons recording victory at this year's International Race Week.

The wily Bermudian skipper set sail for a third consecutive Vrengen Gold Cup -- awarded the overall winner in the International One Design class -- on Sunday and as of yesterday was firmly on course.

Showing the class that has made him a multiple IOD world champion, Simmons motored to a pair of victories in the Great Sound, combining solid crew work with great tactical ability.

The opening race saw Simmons and his four-member crew of wife Sacha, son Lars, Jay Hooper and Steven King, get off to a perfect start in 12 knot breezes, identifying the right shifts and leading by a minute at the top mark. Ensuing legs had the gap steadily extended before he eventually crossed the finish some three minutes ahead of Jan Petter Roed, with Larry Davis back in third.

Following a brief respite Simmons was back at it -- although winds had increased tremendously to around 20 knots and whitecaps abounded. It mattered little, for Simmons again revelled in what he claims as his backyard, taking an early advantage and never relinquishing the reins for a moment.

Second place would appear all those not named Simmons can only hope for now.

"I'm looking a little better and feeling a little better as opposed to (Sunday),'' said Simmons while being toasted by his crew under the canopy at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. "The boat was well-tuned and well-balanced, I just did as I was told, steered the boat and got good results.'' "The crew worked well together and it was a matter of playing the wind shifts. Once we got ahead it made it easier for us, we were able to pick our wind, tack when we wanted to, we had good boat speed and everything held together.'' Standing closest to Simmons, who has 71 points, is Roed on 15 after adding a pair of second place finishes, while Brian Young is third at 173 .

Asked if he could smell the first of what could be another treble, Simmons chuckled. "Well, you never can be too sure about that sort of thing in boat racing, but if we have a fair breeze tomorrow, with the boat we have -- we have the only wooden boat in the fleet -- it'll be interesting to see how it goes and we're looking forward to trying it out.'' Meanwhile in the highly-competitive Etchells class, it was Andreas Lewin stealing the thunder from favourite Tim Patton. Like Simmons, Lewin used a brilliant upwind leg to set the tone and then worked to keep the rest of the fleet behind as he traversed the windward-leeward course.

"Yesterday was a little bit lighter, a little more fluky,'' explained Lewin, who was second overall a year ago. "I thought we sailed a good race yesterday, we just got caught up on a couple of bad shifts that we couldn't anticipated. I felt we had good speed yesterday and sailed smart when we could, but were a tad unlucky. Today we got an early led and were able to pick the shifts however we wanted and were able to dictate the race once we got in front.'' Lewin held off American Bob Bell, who had last year's winner Peter Bromby aboard as crew, while Patton did well to forge third after an up and down affair that saw him fall as far back as fifth at one point.

Patton still managed to hold onto the top spot as his 33 points lead Bell (five) and Lewin (73 ), but, as Lewin indicated, it's anyone's guess who will emerge with the spoils by week's end.

American John Alofsin and British rival Stuart Jardine sparkled in the J-24 class with first and second-place finishes.

Alan Burland continued his dominance in the Tornado fleet with two more bullets, while John Downey recorded a pair of seconds. Likewise American Henry Amthor made a solid first impression among the newly installed 505 class, winning the first two races.

Among the smaller craft, Howard Lee showed that he would not be relinquishing his Comet class title easily, with a first and third that placed him atop the leaderboard, followed by Gladwin Lambert and Stevie Dickinson.

Snipes also got in on the act for the first time, with Alex Pline of the US in the top spot after first and second-place finishes. Malcolm Smith and Pedro Lorson are joint second, Smith having a second and fifth to his credit and Lorson a third and fourth. Tom Daly seized two wins in the all American JY15 class. Adam Barboza heads the Laser class ahead of Christian Luthi.

BIG PENNY -- Defending IOD class champion Penny Simmons heads toward yet another victory at International Race Week.