Perennial Pan-Am favourite Malcolm Smith will head a strong Bermuda sailing team who take to the seas at Marina da Gloria, in Rio, on Sunday.

Former world champion Smith, who claimed a silver medal at the 2003 Pan-Am Games in Domincan Republic, is once again among the elite sailors and will be looking to go one better this time around.

Deb Gravelle, team manager, has also tipped top performances from veteran Stevie Dickinson and Katrina Williams.

“I think our sailing team has the potential for maybe two medals — we have a strong team,” she said. “We face some incredibly high competition so it maybe difficult, but in the snipe and sunfish we have a chance of a medal with Malcolm Smith and Stevie Dickinson.

“We also have high aspirations for Katrina in the laser radial — we hope she can make it into the top five which is the medal round.

“The weather here is different to what we anticipated. There is a light breeze, which can change everything. It’s currently coming out of a direction the Brazilians don’t like so you never know what may happen.

She added: “Malcolm Smith will once again be a big hope for us but he is up against a top Brazilian who can sail down wind really fast and no-one has quite figured out how to stop him. He will be hard to catch but Malcolm can probably catch most of the rest.”

Smith was recently placed second in the Sunfish North Americans held in Alabama, while fellow skipper Stevie Dickinson won silver at the recent Island Games in Rhodes.

“Stevie Dickinson has sailed at the Pan-Am Games before and finished second in the Island Games so he knows what he is doing,” added Gravelle.

Like most team managers Gravelle has expressed difficulties coming to terms with the language barrier, with sailing also experiencing administration difficulties. “The most difficult thing is communication and if you don’t speak Portuguese it’s very challenging,” she added.

“From what I gather there’s been some challenges at the sailing venues in terms of getting money from government to complete things.

“But the officials and competition managers are trying do all they can but their hands have been tied by people higher up — that’s a little frustrating. Some things you would expect to be finished at this point of the Games should be finished but are not.

“For instance the entry form deadline for the races was at 6pm on Wednesday night, but we did not get the forms until the next morning. Obviously they’re letting us enter though.

“The hotel we are at is fine and Tyler Butterfield is staying with us, while Flora Duffy also stopped there.

“It has a mini Pan-Am Village atmosphere and we see all the other athletes at the buffet breakfast each morning.”