TWO young Bermudians will attempt to become youth champions of the world in one of sailing's fastest boats - the 29er.

Until a couple of weeks ago, there were no 29ers on the island. Now there is one. And sailing officials are hoping that Bermuda will have a full fleet in the years to come.

But anyone who has seen James Doughty and Gareth Williams training in the new skiff over the past couple of weeks, will not forget the boat. "It screams," said Doughty's father, Paul who is also a youth development officer with the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association. "When our young sailors get in this boat they get excited for good reason," said Doughty who added that both youngsters have come up through the Optimist ranks which is the official Olympic development boat.

Both James Doughty and Gareth Williams are 15-years-old and in the summer they will travel to Nova Scotia for the International Sailing Association Federation's World Youth Championships. Also going with them will be Ben Wicks who will contest in the Laser class.

Doughty said: "The boys just completed their full week of training with their coach Craig Guthrie who is actually from the host club of the championships - the Chester Yacht Club in Nova Scotia. He is a 49er skiff sailor which is a bigger version of the 29er and is also an Olympic class boat. He just graduated in sports training from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He will come back to Bermuda in June to give the boys further training and then they will go to Canada at the beginning of July and hopefully will be training with the teams from New Zealand and Canada. They will also attend two regattas before the championships. The Kiwis are also considered the best in the worldsin the 29er."

While this 29er which just landed on the island is the only boat here, there will alsobe a 29er in Canada for training purposes. Doughty said: "We have a second boat in Canada which will be used in training and racing up there. Then after Youth Worlds both boats will be in Bermuda to help give a full introduction to our youth sailors."

The boat is 13 feet long and also has a spinnaker.

Doughty said: "It is so clean inside. The class has been around for seven or eight years and we want to see a full class set up here. Our young sailors will love it - no doubt about it."

When their coach from Canada was in Bermuda last week, the team was training in high winds. Doughty said: "During last week we had winds of 20 knots plus and the learning curve was directly upwards. The had previous week before the coach arrived the kids sailed in light air to get used to the boat - technically they didn't have much of an idea. But the coach was very pleased with their progress and he thinks they came a long way very quickly. We also have them on physical training for this boat. It is a very demanding boat on your body. Every night these guys would come home and crash out - they were that tired but the smile on theri faces was ear to ear. The coach's assessment was that they learned more in a week than many other kids learn in five to six months."The two boys are also totally different. "They are a bit like Mutt and Jeff - Gareth who is on the trapeze is 185 pounds and is six foot tall which makes for good leverage. James meanwhile is five foot three inches and weighs 115 pounds. But they are the same age - 15."

While both started their sailing careers in the Optimist "Gareth was so big that by the time he was 12 he had sized out of the Opmimist class".

Doughty said: "He went to Byte class (single handed class and like a small Laser) and then into Laser class. James has been to three World Championships in the Optimist class including China last summer when he was captain of Worlds team. He has had a lot of big fleet championship experience in the Worlds, North and South American Championships. They have followed slightly different paths. But last summer the two teamed up in the 420 class for the Bermuda Youth Nationals which they won. In fact they won all eight races. This is the nest level after the Optimist class."

The IASF sponsors under 18 World Youth Championships every year pre-Olympic and Olympic classes and the 29er is a smaller version of the 49er which is an Olympic class. This year the 29er was adopted by the IASF over the 420 to be the double-handed youth boat in the male and female classes. The championships will be held from July 18-28.

Doughty said: "This boat is so fast. Together both boys are slightly underweight which will be good if there are lighter winds. Under 12 knots it becomes more demanding tactically. But then in a good winds, if you are on one side of the course and you do not like being there you are only seconds away from getting to the other side - this is that fast. We had a kid who was getting disinterested in sailing and we took him out there in the 29er and put him on the wire with the coachon the helm and when the kids came back he said 'I am sold on this boat'. Kids love the speed of this boat."

Doughty added that they have received gerous sponsorship from a variety of people and companies. He said: "Bermuda Container Lines shipped the boat in for free and Stevedoring Services sponsored a significant portion of one of the boats. This first boat in Bermuda is called the SS Flyer after Stevedoring Services."