Gavin Brady and his Oracle BMW Racing crew were nearly untouchable today at the 40th Congressional Cup.

The New Zealander who has won the Congressional Cup twice before (1996, ’97) and finished second two other times won all four of his races today and overtook Australian Peter Gilmour for the overall lead. The on-water umpires were the only foe Brady couldn’t manage today.

Instead of being one point ahead of Gilmour, Brady leads by one-half point – 7.5 to 7 – due to an umpire decision that penalized Brady for a port-starboard incident in his final match against fellow Kiwi Cameron Appleton. The irony is that Brady held the right-of-way starboard tack, not port.

"It’s ridiculous," said a fired-up Brady after the day’s racing. "Cameron did nothing to keep clear. To give that much power to a port-tack boat is ridiculous."

Brady’s second match of the day was against Gilmour, and a share of the lead was at stake. At that point Gilmour led at 6-0 while Brady was at 5-1.

Gilmour got a penalty on Brady in the pre-start when he luffed and the New Zealander was slow to respond. "That was a fair call," said Brady. Still, Brady won the start and controlled the race.

Approaching the windward mark for the second time with both boats on starboard, Gilmour got overlapped to leeward. Both boats wound up luffing head-to-wind for about 40 seconds, with Gilmour to port of Brady.

According to Brady, Gilmour lost control of his bow as both boats began drifting backwards, and then the clew of his jib hit Brady’s boat amidships, which negated Brady’s penalty. He went on to win the match by 24 seconds.

"The tolerances are very fine if you make a mistake," said Gilmour, who dropped to second overall at 7-2 after going 2-2 on the day.

After Brady and Gilmour, there’s a four-way log jam for third that includes Terry Hutchinson (USA), Ed Baird (USA), Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) and Kelvin Harrap (NZL), all at 5-4.

Results (Flights 6-9)

Flight 6 : Scott Dickson def. Terry Hutchinson (04'') - Gavin Brady def. Kelvin Harrap (15'') - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Cameron Appleton (15'') - Peter Gilmour def. Ed Baird (24'') - Mattias Rahm def. Allan Coutts (45'')

Flight 7 : Baird def. Gram-Hansen (02'') - Hutchinson def. Rahm (23'') - Harrap def. Coutts (06'') - Appleton def. Dickson (18'') - Brady def. Gilmour (24'')

Flight 8 : Harrap def. Hutchinson (21'') - Appleton def. Coutts (39'') - Dickson def. Gilmour (21'') - Rahm def. Gram-Hansen (18'') - Brady def. Baird (15'')

Flight 9 : Hutchinson def. Coutts (28'') - Harrap def. Dickson (31'') - Brady def. Appleton (57'') - Gilmour def. Gram-Hansen (14'') - Baird def. Rahm (18'')