Into the quarter finals

Racing commences again today at the Investors Guaranty presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup

Sailors in the Investors Guaranty presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup took Thursday morning off for rounds of golf on Bermuda's famous courses or sunning on pink sand beaches. In the afternoon the sponsors' Pro-Am Regatta features fleet racing with a mixture of pros, crew sponsor VIP's and celebrities aboard each classic IOD sloop being used for the serious match racing that continues Friday in the Quarter-finals of the third stop on the Swedish Match Tour.

Fierce competition begins again on Friday as the sailors come back on the water after their rest day and start the serious business at hand. Three more rounds lead to the winner's circle, the $30,000 first place purse and a name on the King Edward VII Gold Cup. Total prize money is $100.000 distributed proportionally to all sixteen original teams.

When racing resumes early Friday morning only eight teams remain in the competition after the first eight were knocked out in Wednesday Stage 1 racing. Chris Larson (USA), Brian Angel (USA), Cameron Appleton (NZL), Anthony Kotoun (USA), Björn Hansen (SWE), Jenny Axhede (SWE), Cameron Dunn (NZL) and Dennis Conner (USA) all came up short with three losses.

Parings in the top half of the ladder for the quarter-finals pair #1 seed Ed Baird (USA) with Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED), James Spithill (AUS) against Staffan Lindberg (FIN). The bottom half of the pairing ladder pits reigning champion Peter Gilmour (AUS) against Scott Dickson (NZL) and #2 seed Mathieu Richard (FRA) clashes with Russell Coutts (NZL).

Light, shifty winds that plagued racers on Wednesday will be replaced with a building breeze through the finals on Sunday. Friday's forecast from Bermuda Weather service calls for Winds southwesterly 15 to 25 knots, decreasing 12 to 18 knots and veering northwesterly late. Over the weekend the northwesterly should build to 30 knots by Sunday morning and ease to 15-20 in the afternoon in time for the finals.

Group 1 Final Results:

Ed Baird 3 - 0
Klaartje Zuiderbaan 3 - 1
Staffan Lindberg 3-0
James Spithill 3-0
Dennis Conner 1 - 3
Chris Larson 0 - 3
Brian Angel 0 - 3
Cameron Appleton 0 - 3

Group 2 Final Results:

R. Coutts 3 - 0
M. Richard 3 - 0
P. Gilmour 3 - 2
S. Dickson 3 - 2
A. Kotoun 2 - 3
B. Hansen 1 - 3
J. Axhede 0 - 3
C. Dunn 0 - 3