annual Junior World Sailing Championships, beginning Monday.

Set to lead the local charge is Laser II sailor Duncan Simons, who was a member of the Nirvana crew which placed first on elapsed and corrected time in IMS Class Nine during last week's Newport-to-Bermuda Race.

Simons, entering his third championship, will have Julian Wozniak as his Laser crew.

On the girls' side Nicky Crane and Charlotte Watlington will attempt to better their performance of a year ago when Bermuda played host, as they also contest the Laser II class.

Among the single-handed categories, Will Evans and Lucy Wozniak are set to take in the boys and girls Laser competitions, respectively.

The sextet was chosen following a year when all were placed under the microscope during training and while racing in various competitions.

But national sailing coach Chuck Millican said they face an uphill battle during the regatta, when they will come up against the best young sailors in the world.

He said that Simons and Julian Wozniak would have the best chance to do well, but expected all to be severely tested by strong fleets.

"Certainly the kids that have competed before are going to have a stronger chance of doing well, but overall our team is going to be really challenged,'' said Millican.

This is Simons' third world championship and he's now gone from being one of the youngest to being one of the oldest "and I think that with that maturity level -- and the skills increase as age goes on -- he'll have a respectable regatta,'' said Millican.

Wozniak is going for her second world title, her first one single-handed -- she went to Greece two years ago as a double-handed.

"It's a tough regatta,'' Millican added. "It's the best sailors from every single country in the world just like in the Olympics, so the kids really get to be pushed.'' Millican expressed concern over the tendency of Bermudians to get buried at the starts, forcing an unending struggle to regroup.

And it is this aspect, he noted, that was being stressed to the youngsters as they finalised preparations.

"I want them to sail conservatively,'' Millican said. "I want them to be able to get off the starting line in a reasonable shape, make good decisions on the first beat and then see where it brings them from there.

"Typically we as a country and our kids have had trouble coming off the starting line and making the first beat a productive one. They get so far behind and then they maintain the distance from the rest of the boats, not that they're in last place, but they're behind the leaders and they always have the ability to maintain that distance once the first beat is gone by.

"What we've got to do is bring them up that next step, where they're in the higher rankings in the first beat, then they can use their sailing skills to move themselves up.

Next to the Olympics, some regard the junior Worlds as the second most important sailing event on the international calendar.

Last year in Bermuda the event attracted more than 40 countries and more than 200 competitors.

THE WORLD AWAITS -- Coaches Chuck Millican (left) and Ted Wood flank Bermuda's entry in the World Youth Sailing Championships next week in Newport, Rhode Island. From left are Nicky Crane, Charlotte Watlington, Julian Wozniak, Lucy Wozniak, Will Evans and Duncan Simons.