Sean Bouchard is still Bermuda's Optimist National Champion.

He retained his title by six points last Saturday despite a spirited challenge from the top-class Jesse Kirkland who posted four victories out of five races in the final day's sailing in the Great Sound.

Bouchard won with 29 points to Kirkland's 35, while Oliver Riihilouma was third on 44. Elijah Simmons and Cameron Pimentel completed the top five on 60 and 65 points respectively to book their tickets to the Optimist World Championships in the Canary Islands in July.

William Hutchings - the only other person to win a race on Saturday - missed out on that trip, finishing sixth on 91 points.

Points for the national championship, as well as trials for the Worlds, were tallied from 20 races (four drops) held last December and in March with ten races on each occasion.

Bouchard also topped the standings - based on the March races only - for the continental trials in which the top 15, plus up to three competitors of the opposite gender, will represent the Island at the North American Championships in Mexico, also in July.

In fact, the top six in those results were exactly the same, except that Simmons and Pimentel exchanged places. Bouchard scored 15 points; Kirkland, 17; Riihilouma, 19; Pimentel, 35; Simmons, 45; and Hutchings 46.

Given winds out of the east at 12-18 knots and a good chop, conditions made for very competitive sailing and a test of stamina. Eleanor Gardner continued to show her stuff and emerged the top girl in both series; finishing eighth in the Worlds trials (126 points) and seventh in the continental trials (57 points). The fine performance by others in the growing Optimist fleet can only mean that the 2004 trials starting in December promise to be even more competitive.

Trophies were presented at a pot-luck dinner held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club on Sunday evening where veteran Bermudian sailor and former Olympic competitor, Jimmy Kempe, was the guest speaker. His talk and anecdotes provided the young sailors and parents alike with a positive testament to the sport of sailing in Bermuda.

Training continues through the week under the tutelage of Pablo Weber, the national Optimist coach. On Saturday 11 sailors head off to Montevideo, Uruguay, to compete in the 2003 South American Championships.