By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

HUNDREDS of junior sailors hit the waters this morning at the Montagu foreshore to commence the 2025 Sir Durward Knowles National Junior Sailing Championships.

The three-day event will showcase some of the best talent the national sport has to offer at the junior level while continuing to honour the legacy of Bahamian Olympian Sir Durward Knowles.

The Exuma Sailing Club, led by head coach Dallas Knowles, took home the overall team winner floating trophy at last year’s competition.

Coach Knowles is expecting the club’s top junior sailors to repeat last year’s success. “We have a pretty big team with 16 kids so there is a wide range of expectations. With our top sailors that performed very well last year, we are looking for them to do the same thing. Joss, Emit and Tanaj got first, second and third last year so we are looking for them to be at the top. This will be the final regatta for one or two of them so they are looking to go out with a bang,” he said.

Joss Knowles, of the Exuma Sailing Club, emerged victorious in both the sunfish and E classes.

The club also secured the top three podium spots in the E class race. 

J Knowles was first with a net total of six and his younger brother Emit Knowles placed second with a net total of seven. Tanaj Manos, who skippered One Bahamas, was third with 17 points.

Coach Knowles said the goal is not only to dominate the sunfish, laser and E classes but also to allow the younger junior sailors to develop their craft.

“We have got our top guys split up between the Sunfish and Laser classes so we are hoping to do well in both of those. We have a relatively new team in the optis, which are the younger kids, so this will be more of a learning regatta for them and a bit of a stepping stone into the next one. We are just looking for them to have a solid performance. If we do well and get a trophy in there that would be great, but that is not necessarily the expectation for that class, but we are looking to be on the podium in the other three classes,” Knowles said.

Competition will feature over 200 junior sailors hailing from Exuma, Grand Bahama, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Eleuthera and New Providence.

The competitors will battle for three days in the optis, sunfish, laser and E Class categories.

Knowles gave some insight on what preparation has been like for his sailors leading up to the start of competition today.

“The training has been nonstop and we still practice three times a week. We always seem to have an event just around the corner so we are always keeping the kids fresh, on the water and ready to compete. This is the first time traveling for about a third of the team so it was a lot of mental preparation for them just knowing what to expect sailing in a new environment in front of a lot of people. We are just trying to get them mentally and physically prepared,” he said.

Competition will be stiff as a number of junior sailors are hoping to repeat as champions or dethrone the defending champions.

Norman Cartwright, of the Bahamas National Sailing School (BNSS), is the defending champion of the laser class.

Finley Mckinney-Lambert is the reigning champion of the optis class.

Edward Knowles Jr will look to retain his title in the opti green fleet class.

Coach Knowles expressed the importance of National Junior Sailing Championships as it relates to the development of the national sport at the junior level.

“I think this is one of the most important events because it features all four of the classes- optis, sunfish, laser and E class sloops. There is no other regatta that features all four of those boats together in one regatta so this is probably the only time you are going to have this many clubs from around The Bahamas competing at one event. 

“I think it is a big opportunity for this event to become more than just the E class championship. I think it needs to become a very large club event, where the clubs compete against each other and we crown a club champion with more sailors coming from the outer islands to compete in all the classes,” he said.

The Sir Durward Knowles National Junior Sailing Championships will continue until Saturday at the Montagu Foreshore.