THE KPMG Youth Winter Olympics, now in its ninth year, kicked off the Bahamas National Sailing School’s 2023 season with the first major junior sailing regatta over the weekend in Montagu Bay.

The popular event attracted sailors between the ages of 8-18 from New Providence and the Family Islands.

This year, more than 60 sailors from the Nassau Sailing Club, the Harbour Island Sailing Club and the Eleuthera Sailing Academy participated.

This event, which is usually held in February each year, often presents challenging weather conditions and this year was no exception. High winds, torrential downpours and lightning on Saturday gave the race committee no alternative but to limit the day’s sailing to just one race for the Optimists Championship, Sunfish and Laser fleets, while the less experienced green fleet Optimists stayed ashore.

Brighter conditions followed on Sunday, but the 18-20 knots of heavy wind, gusting much higher, again left the green fleeters and most of the Sunfish without a chance to sail. The Lasers and Optimist Championship sailors packed in 3 and 5 fast paced races respectively. It was truly a battle of the fittest out on the water, with numerous capsizes and equipment issues that caused several participants to retire early.

Of the 23 strong Optimists, national champion, Patrick Tomlinson of Lyford Cay Sailing//Royal Nassau Sailing Club, was victorious. Eliza Denning also of Lyford Cay/Royal Nassau Sailing Club was placed second and Finley McKinney Lambert of Eleuthera Sailing Academy was third.

In the laser fleet of 11 boats, Ellianne Higgs of The Royal Nassau Sailing Club stole the show with a first place finish in every race.

Joshua Weech of The Nassau Yacht Club/Bahamas National Sailing School was second and Craig Ferguson, Nassau Yacht Club/ Bahamas National Sailing School, placed third.

In the Sunfish group, Johannes Maritz of The Royal Nassau Sailing Club was the only participant to sail on both days and was the clear winner. Delano Davis and Steve Cash, both of The Bahamas National Sailing School, finished in second and third respectively.

It was certainly a championship that will be well remembered by all who took part.

Thanks go out to the race committee volunteers who had a challenging job this weekend and, aside from running the races, had serious safety issues to keep in mind.

The Bahamas National Sailing School wish to give their thanks to the title sponsor, KPMG, for their continued support of junior sailing.

Nico Maritz of KPMG not only volunteered his time out on the race courses, but also presented the trophies to the top three finishers in each fleet at an awards ceremony at The Nassau Yacht Club on Sunday afternoon.

For more information about junior sailing please visit the National sailing School website: www.bahsailingschool.org