Before yesterday’s racing, the big shock of this event was Bertrand Pacé’s sudden dip in form. The Team New Zealand coach and winner of last year’s Swedish Match Grand Prix series is leaving after the round robin stages without a single win to his name after seven races.

Now he has some august company for the trip to the airport: his team mate, Team New Zealand strike helmsman Dean Barker, five time winner of this event Peter Gilmour, Danish double Olympic medallist Jesper Bank and Oracle Racing’s current helmsman Chris Dickson will all be heading home early.

We learned yesterday that Russell Coutts and Jochen Schumann of the Alinghi syndicate had progressed to the quarterfinals from Group A with Danish amateur Jes Gram-Hansen and this year’s series winner Magnus Holmberg. They will be racing against the Group B qualifiers led by French match racer Luc Pillot, GBR Challenge’s Andy Green and Sweden’s Bjorn Hansen, all scoring 5-2, and Prada’s Gavin Brady with 4-3.

Jesper Bank equalled Brady’s score but had lost their head-to-head, letting Brady through. Peter Gilmour won two and lost two, failing to recover from his poor first day while Dean Barker let three slip by to fall to seventh in the table. Below him was Chris Dickson – like Pacé, he failed to win a single race.

Swedish Match Gold Cup, Marstrand
Skipper: Wins-Losses, after round robin stages
Group A:

• Jochen Schumann: 6-1
• Russell Coutts: 6-1
• Jes Gram-Hansen: 6-1
• Magnus Holmberg: 3-4
• Jesper Radich: 3-4
• Johnie Berndtsson: 2-5
• James Spithill: 2-5
• Bertrand Pace: 0-7

Group B:

• Luc Pillot: 5-2
• Andy Green: 5-2
• Bjorn Hansen: 5-2
• Gavin Brady: 4-3
• Jesper Bank: 4-3
• Peter Gilmour: 3-4
• Dean Barker: 2-5
• Chris Dickson: 0-7