Another Sunfish World Champion for the Bahamas!

13 year old Paul de Souza, an 8^th grader at St. Andrew’s School, became the Junior (under 15) World Sunfish Championship  by finishing first in this division at the Sunfish Youth World Championships held in St. Petersburg, Florida, October 11-13, 2012. Paul was the youngest competitor in the regatta.  He finished 8th overall, competing against sailors up to the age of 19.

The three day regatta was held at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. The weather conditions were excellent, with a mixture of heavy and light winds. Three races were held each day. Paul’s best race

was on the second day, where he placed 4^th overall. The final day of the regatta brought heavy winds, which brought a challenge to the youngest and smallest competitor in the fleet, but Paul managed to hold his position.

Paul follows in the footsteps of Donnie Martinborough, three time World Champion in the sunfish. Donnie is an inspiration for Paul, giving him advice and encouraging Paul to enter the World Championships.

"I would like to thank my coach, Robert Dunkley and my fellow sailors Spencer Cartwright, A.J Forbes, Pedro Rahming and Daniel Gibson for helping me to sail my best”,  said Paul.  

Pre Event: Bahamas Open Optimist National Championships 2012

It is all happening in just three days time. 

Harbour Island will play host to the largest sailing regatta that The Bahamas has ever seen.

Over 90 boats (Optimist dinghies) will be participating in this premier junior event  geared towards sailors ages 8 to 15. 

Competitors will be coming from Grand Bahama, Nassau, Long Island, Governor's Harbour, Abaco and the Cayman Islands. Currently, the plan is for Seven races to be sailed for the series during over the course of Friday and Saturday. The sailors will be racing on two different courses located on the harbour side of beautiful HI; one for Championship Fleet of around 45 boats and the other for the beginner Green Fleet of 45 or more boats.

Our top junior sailors, like Paul de Souza (Current Jr. Sunfish and Jr. Laser National Champion) and Spencer Cartwright (Optimist Nationals 2011 champion), will be racing in the Championship Fleet and I am sure they will be challenged by some of the younger sailors who are now starting to sail very competitively. 

Unfortunately, our third premier young sailor, Alande (AJ) Forbes, who is one of our top international sailors that attended this year's Optimist World Championship event in Dominica Republic (along with Spencer and Paul) will not be competing due to an injury. He will certainly be missed.

The Green Fleeters, as this is their first real regatta will be coached around the course by our BSA Instructor, Donico Brown. This is a tradition we have developed over the years, and this idea works extremely well in getting the kids to learn more about racing.

If you will be in Harbor Island, come on down to the harbour side and watch our young sailors in action.

This regatta would not be possible without the help of our Sponsors. With this in mind we would like to thank Bahamas Fast Ferries, Bahamas Hot Mix, Cable Cares (Cable Bahamas), Palm Cay, Coca Cola, KPMG, Rotary International, East Nassau Rotary, and Royal Bank of Canada along with many individuals for all your support not only for this event; but for all you do for us in our year round sailing program.  

-Coach Robert Dunkley

Event: RNSC Mix-Up Regatta 2012

     What a fun weekend of sailing! This past Saturday and Sunday all of our dinghy classes, Snipes, Lasers, Sunfish and Optis were on Montague Bay battling it out.  This was a challenge regatta with many sailing in boats they don’t usually sail - and it wasn’t just the junior sailors making all the noise. Many of our recent Adult Learn To Sail participants were right there in the mix of things yelling with their newly acquired expertise and spouting words like “staaarboard!”, “buoy rooooom!” and a repertoire  of other battle-cry words. Also amazing was how obedient the fathers were to their sons’ commands as dads were crewing for the youngsters in the Sunfish class.   As one of the kids said; “This is a first! It is the first time I have ever been in charge of my dad. Telling him what to do was great and he did what I said most of the time, cause if he didn’t he was going to have to swim back to shore…. and he ain’t that good a swimmer”.

In all, 42 sailors in 32 boats competed with teams coming from Grand Bahama and Abaco. The “hotshots” of the events were Eric Nabb (Freeport) in the Lasers, our junior representative this year at the ISAF Youth World Championships, Paul de Souza, Spencer Cartwright and Alande Forbes, our top three Optimist sailors who just recently returned from the Optimist World Championships and last but not least, Nicky Saddleton, the “reigning champion” of our Adult Learn To Sail J22 Match Race Championship.  Paul and Alande accepted the Laser challenge with Paul actually winning in this class while Spencer took on and won the Snipe challenge. Nicky who with crew Lori Lowe raced in the Snipes, also made her debut helming the Snipe for the very first time and sailed amazingly well.

In the Jr./Dad Sunfish class two teams,  the Rachel / Tim Sands Team (Abaco) and Tristan / Roger Eldon Team (Nassau) battled it out every race with the Eldons coming out ahead at the end of nine races….but by only one point. 

In the Opti Advanced Fleet there was also close racing especially between Richard King and Brenden Sands. Brenden won his class and is on his way to doing well in the up-coming Bahamas Optimist National Championships (Oct 5 & 6 in Harbour Island). In the Optimist Green Fleet Tre Romer took top honors while Tahj Ramirez, who just started sailing this summer, placed second. 

Judging by the smiles on all the sailor’s faces, I would say everyone had a great time. As you will see from David Valentine’s video and Dunk’s photos – all on the new BSA website www.BAHsailing.org and Facebook – the racing in all classes was close, challenging and fun.

It was extremely encouraging to see so many sailors of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds participating in this event. With thanks to the support of the Bahamas Sailing Association’s sponsors so many more young sailors have taken to the sport and now make regattas like this possible.  So thank you JS Johnson, Cable Bahamas and Cable Cares Foundation, Rotary East Nassau, Odyssey Aviation Bahamas, Bahamas Hot Mix, KPMG, Bahamas Maritime Authority, Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture for your financial assistance. Your support really does help young Bahamians develop healthy, disciplined and productive lives. 

Robert Dunkley

Paul De Souza leading the way to the finish of the 8th race in the Mix-Up Regatta - In 9 races he took 6 firsts, 1 second and 1 third. - Way to go Paul!

Two juniors with their dads as crew battling to the finish line of the 7th race. Rachel Sands with her dad Tim (#3927) and Tristan Eldon with his dad Roger (#3963). In the end, the Eldons won by 1pt over the Sands duo.

Richard King sailing his new boat upwind during the Mix-Up Regatta. Congratulations on your second place overall finish in this event!

Spencer Cartwright (skipper) and Daniel Gibson (crew) crossing the finish line to win the Snipe division. Great sailing guys!

Trevor and Andrew Goodrum ducking the stern of Fernando De Cardenas. It was this sort of close sailing that was present in the Snipe class during the entire regatta.

Check out the rest of the photos here!