Somers Kempe and Lance Fraser both endured a tough day at the office in yesterday’s opening day of the Argo Group Gold Cup in Hamilton Harbour.

Kempe managed one win in his four Group One matches while fellow local skipper Fraser failed to get off the mark after losing all of his four Group Two matches.

Kempe, who is making his first appearance in the Gold Cup as a skipper, could not have asked for a better start, prevailing against Australian Keith Swinton in his first match.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club commodore managed to get a penalty on his rival during the pre-start, and despite trailing all the way around the course, did just enough to prevent Swinton from completing a 360-degree turn to exonerate himself on the final run to the finish line.

Joy was short-lived for Kempe and his Raymarine/Ocean Electronics team-mates, however, as successive losses to Sweden’s Björn Hansen and Johnie Berntsson and France’s Arthur Herreman have left them with plenty to do in their remaining matches to keep hopes alive of advancing to the quarter-finals.

“It was a quick start and then we had some tough matches,” Kempe said. “We had a good one against Keith Swinton in the first match but unfortunately we just kind of slid a little bit in the next three matches.

“We had one tough loss against Herreman and the other two matches were against better guys who did a better job coming off the start line.

“We had a penalty against us against Berntsson and were never really in it.”

Fraser, who is appearing in his fourth consecutive Gold Cup, endured one of those days he would rather forget after losing to world match racing champion Taylor Canfield, of the US Virgin Islands, Finland’s Staffan Lindberg, Australian David Gilmour and American Chris Poole.

“It was probably the worst day of sailing we have had in quite a while,” Fraser said. “I had just terrible starts in the first three races.

“We sailed well around the course at times but small mistakes costs us huge gaps in all of the races. At some point we fought back to almost be in an attacking position and then just one mistake or one puff of breeze took the boat out of reach for us.”

Fraser and Team Digicel Business have their work cut out if they are to stand any chance of progressing.

“From here the only way is up,” Fraser said. “We just have to go undefeated now if we want any hope of moving forward in the event. There’s no other way to put it.”

Also finding the going tough yesterday was Italy’s Francesco Bruni, the defending champion, who managed two wins but was deducted half a point for a collision with England’s Ian Williams that occurred during the first upwind leg.

Poland’s Marek Stanczyk has four wins under his belt while six teams have three wins, among them past Gold Cup winners Williams, Berntsson and Canfield.

Williams, who won the Gold Cup in 2006, triumphed in all of his matches but was deducted half a point after being partly blamed for the collision with Bruni. the going tough yesterday was Italy’s Francesco Bruni, the defending champion, who managed two wins but was deducted half a point for a collision with England’s Ian Williams that occurred during the first upwind leg.

“We were leading all of our races, even the two we lost, so we could have and a better score of 4-0,” Bruni said. “But we made some tactical mistakes on the wind and it was hard to lose two points that were in our pocket.”

Bruni hopes he and his Luna Rossa team-mates can bounce back in their remaining group matches.

“Tomorrow is an important day,” he said. “We are going to have a lot of points available and we have to grab as many as we can.”

Remaining unbeaten is Poland’s Marek Stanczyk with four wins under his belt while six teams have three wins, among them past Gold Cup winners Williams, Berntsson and Canfield.

Williams, who won in 2006, triumphed in all of his matches but was deducted half a point after being partly blamed for the collision with Bruni.