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It was a long, tough day on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, and Pace commented, "we had a very good day on the water, it was very tricky, but Peter Evans did a great job on the tactics." Helping the home team domination of this series is Cameron Appleton, who holds second place with an 11 - 5 scoreline.

Also on 11 wins, but with six losses, is Kiwi Gavin Brady, who is now sailing for Italy's Prada Challenge. Brady confirmed that the conditions were testing, "the wind was all over the place, which made it very difficult, but with 22 races to find the top four, the best teams are going to go through."

Magnus Holmberg of Sweden's Victory America's Cup challenge slips into fourth place, with 10 points, leaving Team New Zealand's Dean Barker fighting for his place in the semi-finals. With eight flights left to sail, the battle for those top four places that make the cut, looks likely to go on until the bitter end. Two veterans, Chris Dickson of the Oracle Challenge, and Rod Davis representing the Prada Challenge, also have nine wins, but one more loss than Barker.

Best of the non-America's Cup skippers is Denmark's Jesper Radich, who has seven points on the scoreboard. Britain's GBR Challenge, skippered by Andy Green, are languishing in eleventh place, with just four wins from sixteen starts. The weather on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour was good, with sunshine and a south westerly wind gusting from 12 to 18 knots. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron pushed through the schedule, and weather permitting, the elimination round robins should be completed on Friday. The semi-finals and finals are scheduled for Saturday, with the action taking place right off Auckland's Viaduct Basin, home of all the America's Cup teams.

Results after three days

Bertrand Pace	NZL	12 - 4
Cameron Appleton	NZL	11 - 5
Gavin Brady	ITA	11 - 6
Magnus Holmberg	SWE	10 - 6
Dean Barker	NZL	9 - 6
Rod Davis	ITA	9 - 7
Chris Dickson	USA	9 - 7
Jesper Radich	DEN	7 - 9
Jes Gram-Hansen	DEN	6 - 10
Nicola Celon	ITA	5 - 11
Andy Green	GBR	4 - 12
Bjorn Hansen	SWE	3 - 13