Bermuda's future Olympic sailing hopefuls will again be out on the water, starting on Saturday, for an eight-day clinic training for the Byte North American Championships – a qualifier for next summer's Youth Olympics in Singapore.

"We have been training quite regularly and racing every weekend," said one of the Byte organisers, Martin Siese – a former crew member of four-time Olympic Star sailor Peter Bromby.

Siese and fellow senior sailor David Hillier have been overseeing the Byte class sailing on the weekends as well as helping out when international coaches Pablo and Dino Weber from Argentina come to Bermuda to conduct the clinics as they will this weekend.

There have been eight young sailors coming out regularly for the Byte class with the hope of getting one of the two spots Bermuda may qualify for at next summer's Youth Olympics.

Those sailors are Alex Davis, Dimitri Stevens, Kalin Hillier, Rahiem Steede, Owen Siese, Mackenzie Cooper, Sara Hopkins and Connor Astwood who are all veterans of the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association.

For a number of years there has always been a question about what boat the Opti graduates should get into.

Now they are jumping into the Byte class.

Siese said: "The idea is to get as many people racing as we can – the more we can expose these young guys to racing, the better it will be. The Bytes are geared to lighter persons – perhaps between 120-160 pounds although at 160 pounds you are getting a bit big for the Byte.

"But it is a great boat to use as a stepping stone between the Opti and the Laser. Before they went into the Laser which was probably a bit much for them, coming right out of the Opti although the Laser class has made adjustments. But the Byte fills a nice niche."

While the Bytes have been around Bermuda for a while, it was only since this past summer that the young Opti graduates really became serious about racing them.

"It really kicked in after the Canadian National Championships and the World Championships which were both held in Kingston, Ontario," said Siese.

"The boats have been around for a while and the kids have been playing with them but not really training – it all really started after the World Championships.

"Prior to that we had not done much training in the Byte at all. Now we are getting a bit more serious about it because this is the designated boat for the Youth Olympics and we have a regional qualification coming up in the Cayman Islands in March where the North American Byte Championships will be held. Hopefully we can qualify the country first and then we will have trials to see who goes to represent Bermuda in Singapore next August.

"At the moment there is a good buzz around the class – a number of people have come out to help and we have a fair bit of parental involvement that has carried over from the Opti class.

"Myself and David have been providing race committee work. We are keen to offer advice but we really leave the serious coaching to the professional coaches, Dino and Pablo Weber. We facilitate the racing so the coaches can concentrate with (training) the kids."

The clinic, which starts on Saturday, will run for over a week and is also geared to those Bermuda youngsters who are in boarding school abroad and are returning to the Island for Thanksgiving.

"There are also another three (foreign) sailors who will be coming for the clinics," said Siese.

At a clinic last month three sailors from the Netherland Antilles joined the Bermudians and interest has been expressed from top sailors from Canada, US, Dominican Republic and USVI for future clinics in Bermuda.

Over the Christmas holidays two more clinics will be held – the first from December 19-23 and the second from December 27-30.

"The Webers will also be coming for those clinics," added Siese.

While many look at these Opti graduates as the next Olympians, Siese said: "Well there are some older ones like Jesse and Zander Kirkland in the 49er. Jesse has done fantastically well in the US – there are some others like Cameroon Pimental who are probably the next ones but then these lot are the next bunch behind them."

Hillier said for some time there has been a problem deciding what class Bermuda's young stars should go into once they had left the Opti.

"That has always been a problem – what do we do after they graduate from the Opti class?

"The Byte class is perfect for them and the next class would probably the Laser Radial class which is also an Olympic class. Now we have a whole committee under president Pat Young for the Byte class and Dede Cooper has been instrumental in getting the clinics organised. We now have an executive and we are pumping ideas at them. To be honest, down the line, what I would like to see is this class stay together and as the sailors come out of the Optis that this will be the first boat they get into.

"After you get to 140 pounds you are going to be ready for the Laser Radials."

Both Siese and Hillier have also been pleased to see some of Bermuda's senior sailors come out and give their support to the youngsters.

Hillier said that former World Sunfish champion and double Pan-Am silver medallist Malcolm Smith helped the other day and Stevie Dickinson had talked to the kids.

"They want to give something back and both have come away impressed from what they have seen."

Four-time Olympic Star sailor Bromby has been watching Bermuda's youngsters over the years and said: "It is exciting to see the Byte now being used to bridge that gap between the Opti and the senior sailors. It seems that it is starting to bear some fruit especially with people like Martin (Siese) putting in the effort."

Bromby and his Olympic crewmate Lee White used their Christmas Tree Fund to help finance their numerous Olympic campaigns but now they are seeing that money go to the youth.

"We both said that when it came time that we didn't use the money, we would put it back into youth sailing," said Bromby.

The Bermuda Sailing Association handles the Christmas tree sales and some of the money raised is used to help send young national sailors abroad to compete, part goes to the Opti Association and part goes to Sandys Boat Club for their programme.

Around 3,200 young athletes are expected to compete across all the sports on the Olympic programme at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games to be hosted by Singapore in August, 2010.

The sailing competition will feature 100 young sailors, aged between 15-16 years, competing across four events – the Byte CII dinghy and the Techno 293 windsurfer were chosen for the male and female events.