Bermuda's National Match Racing Championship, the Bacardi Cup, will give sailing fans plenty of local talent to applaud this weekend when eight of the Island's best teams take to local waters for intense round-robin one-on-one racing.

The event, hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC), will determine the winner of the Bacardi Cup, who along with the runner-up will gain entry into next month's Bermuda Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup, inaugurated 54 years ago, has developed into one of the strongest of the star-studded stops on the global nine-event Swedish Match Tour.

The Bacardi Cup has been Bermuda's own unique qualifier for this event, giving up-and-comers as well as tested veterans of match racing a direct shot at making the cut for the Gold Cup's qualifying rounds and - if successful through to the finals - claiming a portion of $65,000 in prize money.

Racing for both events will take place in Hamilton Harbour.

Those in the fleet for this weekend's racing were expected to be confirmed at a meeting last night.

"The Bacardi Cup was created as a way of giving locals a way to qualify for the Bermuda Gold Cup," said Charles Tatem, RBYC's chairman of race management. "It now stands on its own, however, as one of Bermuda's most hotly contested match racing regattas."

Four of the eight Bacardi Cup entries are determined by results in Bermuda's well established annual one-design regattas: the International One-Design nationals, the J-24 and Etchells class match race championships and the Bermuda Fitted Dinghy championship.

Last year's Bacardi Cup winner gets an automatic invitation and the remaining three entries are determined by resume.

"We consider the Bacardi Cup important to the continued development of Bermudian sailors on the international match racing scene," said Richard Nwaobi, general manager of Bacardi Brands Bermuda. "We are proud to sponsor the event and support the Bermuda Gold Cup at the same time."