Forget football or cricket, sailing is Bermuda's true national sport, writes Matt Westcott.

While the statement might get the heckles up of some on the Island and others may say, Tim Patton, as president of Bermuda Sailing Association, is obviously biased, the seasoned skipper is adamant that it's true.

Patton, preparing to head to the Etchells World Championships in the USA, points to the number of sailors competing internationally on a regular basis and to the success they are having.

For example, Bermuda have two skippers already qualified for the Olympic Games in Athens in Star Class sailor Peter Bromby and his Yngling compatriot Paula Lewin.

Then there's Malcolm Smith and Zander Kirkland, the former a silver medallist at the Pan-Am Games in the Dominican Republic in August in the Sunfish and the latter a seventh-place finisher at the same regatta, this time in the Laser.

Add to that Kirkland's younger sibling, Jesse, who is currently tearing up the water in the Optimist class. The youngster grabbed silver at the World Championships in Spain.

And that is to name but a few.

Achievements on the soccer field and cricket pitch pale in comparison.

"Bermuda has enjoyed yet another incredibly successful year in the sport of sailing on the international stage," said Patton. "We are going from strength to strength and it really is Bermuda's national sport."

The skipper said the reasons for this began with the Island itself.

"Bermuda is the single best place in the world to learn to sail," he said. "I often use the analogy that if we were a European country we would be Liechtenstein and we would be skiers.

"It's just natural that we would be good at it."

Patton said the fact that sailing was a sport in which huge teams were not required to be successful also helped.

"One crew of three or four people can, with practice and battle hardening, compete at the world level," he said. "Whereas with a team of 11 footballers you need such an enormously deep pool for them to compete on the world stage."

Patton said there was no reason why the success currently being experienced could not be built on and bettered in the future with the crop of youngsters coming through.

"That's one of the great challenges at the moment," he said. "To keep putting them in the right positions so they are keen to continue.

"A lot of the work we are doing now at the BSA relates to youth development and the future looks very rosy for us."

Paula Lewin shot into the top ten of the Olympic Class World Sailing Championships yesterday after a win and a fifth place in the day's pair of races.

Lewin, sailing in the Yngling class, was in 14th place at the start of the day's sailing at Cadiz, Spain. But after her fine results the skipper, accompanied by crew of sister Peta and Maria Lopez, is now in eighth position out of 41 boats.

Peter Bromby and crew Martin Siese, meanwhile, are ninth in the Star Class after fourth and seventh place finishes in their opening races.