By Colin Thompson

Sailing Correspondent

International Race Week has undergone a major overhaul this year.

The annual spectacle has been divided into two separate regattas to be held in April and November.

It also has different title sponsors — Digicel Bermuda and Bacardi Bermuda — with sailors no longer receiving invitations to compete.

In previous years, dinghies and keelboats competed for class honours in the same event on separate racecourses in the Great Sound.

But organisers have opted for change this year in an ambitious effort to enhance the event and avoid the smaller dinghy classes from being overshadowed by the larger keelboats, as has been the case in previous years.

What is now known as the Digicel Bermuda International Dinghy Race Weekend will be held from April 9 to 11 and will feature five classes: double-handed RS Fevas, Comets, single-handed Optimists, Lasers and O’pen Bics.

All racing will take place in the Great Sound, with Optimists and O’pen Bics competing on the Bravo course and remaining dinghies on the Alpha course reserved for the larger keelboats.

The Digicel Bermuda International Dinghy Race Weekend will feature as many as 60 sailors from the United States, Canada, Britain and Bermuda.

Meanwhile, the Bacardi Bermuda International Race Weekend will take place from November 19 to 21.

The regatta will feature the International One Design racing sloop, J-105, International Etchell, Viper 640 as well as a PHRF handicap division.

All keelboats will compete on the Alpha racecourse in the Great Sound, which will host the 35th America’s Cup in June 2017.

Registration for the Bacardi Bermuda International Race Weekend has yet to begin. Last year local sailors Rockal Evans, Cameron Pimentel and Campbell Patton captured Race Week glory.

Evans won the Comet title sailing with girlfriend and crew Christina Barnard, Pimentel claimed the Lasers while Patton reigned supreme in the Optimists fleet.