Bermuda's Pan-Am Games silver medallist, Malcolm Smith, is making significant inroads towards qualifying for the next Games to be held in the Dominican Republic in 2003.

Smith has just returned from the South American and Caribbean Sunfish Championships where he placed an impressive second among a fleet of 30 boats from around the world.

In an ideal Pan-Am warm-up, the regatta was held off the waters of Baya Hibe Bay in the Dominican Republic.

Venezuelan Eduardo Cordero won the championships while native Dominican, Luis Alcese, finished third.

"I managed to score two fifth places, two fourths, a third and a second place," said Smith. "I dropped one of my fifths.

"I could have had some better races. There were some races where I missed out on some fairly large shifts . . . you know where you get on the wrong side of the course and you expect the wind to do this and it ends up doing the exact opposite.

"One race - I think that it was the very first - in just one heartbeat I dropped from second to fifth. But those are the type of things that can happen in sailing.

"I actually led him (Cordero) a few times to the windward mark, but he always managed to catch up. He's an awfully fast off-wind sailor. That's where he makes a lot of his ground.

"But the conditions were good, ranging anywhere from eight to 18 knots.

"Overall I was very happy with the results."

Smith noted that his hopes of representing the Island at next year's Games still rested with Bermuda Sailing Association and Bermuda Olympic Association, and that trying to qualify in a number of overseas regattas was becoming a strain on his cheque book.

"Now that I have got to this point I am actually going to have to approach the Olympic Association and try to get my elite athlete funding raised a bit if I'm going to compete in all these regattas because it is pretty heavy on my pocket," said Smith.

"Hopefully they will look at this result and see that it's worth the investment."

Smith is contemplating competing next in Newport, Rhode Island in August.

Stevie Dickinson and crew Tai Trott muted Rudy Bailey's celebrations last weekend.

Dickinson, in Kitty Hawk, sailed away with the Territorial Regatta which was contested off the shores of the West End Sailboat Club in the Great Sound on Sunday.

Earlier this month Bailey, in Temptation, ran away with the Long Distance Race en route to his seventh win overall.

However, on Sunday Dickinson wasn't to be denied, as he chalked up two firsts and a second for a winning series total of 3.5

Bailey, again accompanied by daughter Danielle, placed second with a fourth, third and a first in the day's final race.

Byron McCallan's (Shogun) came in third with a sixth, second and a fourth place finish.

The regatta, which was reduced from four races down to three, was contested in unfavourably light conditions and attracted a fleet of ten boats from various sailboat clubs.

"It felt good. We sailed extremely good and really smart," said Dickinson.

"That's what won us the races on Sunday. What I did actually was to change the rig a little bit to give the boat more power and it worked out really well for us."