week when they travel to Martinique for the World Optimist Dinghy Championships.

The event will see 215 youngsters from 47 countries battling it out in 15 races while living and sharing meals together in a village setting.

The Island sailors are A.J.Black (15), James Doughty (13), Husayn Brown (12), Jonathan Kempe (12) and Jesse Kirkland (11), with Alan Frith (13) as alternate.

The team, all of whom came through a 30-race qualification procedure which started last December, is younger and 15 pounds lighter than the Bermuda squad which took part in last year's corresponding event.

Team leader Paul Doughty said: "Our goal for our year-round Optimist programme and for the world championships is for each sailor to learn, adjust and improve their performance.

"The major challenge to results will be inexperience in the loud fray in many languages at the starts and mark roundings, but if they can fight their way into the front row and pop free, we may see respectable results in individual races, which would be a bonus.'' The team have just completed two weeks of intensive training in the Great Sound, under the guidance of top Argentine coach Pablo Weber.

The programme has been sponsored by Bermuda-based Harrington International Insurance.

Harrington vice-president Tom Coffey said: "Sailing is an activity that helps define what Bermuda is. It is character-building for the young solo sailor to master skills and meet fresh challenges from competitors and the sea.'' The Optimist dinghy is the international youth boat for sailors aged under 16 and with 150,000 of the boats being raced, it is the fastest-growing sailboat class in the world.