Bermudian brothers Zander and Jesse Kirkland will compete in the 2010 North American 49er Championships this weekend in Miami fresh off from sailing in the World Championships in the Bahamas.

The Kirklands are bidding to qualify for the 2012 Olympics and had their first regatta in the 49er at the Worlds – a daunting opener to say the least.

Yesterday the brothers were still waiting for their boat to be cleared into the US by customs.

Zander said: "You can imagine how much fun that is. It is a headache and some of the paperwork was a little twisted and we are trying to unravel it so we can start sailing again.

"Hopefully we will be able to pick the boat up today so we can sail tomorrow."

And Kirklands' boat suffered some damage in collisions in the Worlds but Zander said: "The only thing we really have to do now are the rigging adjustments – the (ripped) sails are at the sailmakers. We took them on the plane with us."

The equipment damage at the Worlds included tiller extension, outhaul, ripped upper main, holed bottom panel of the main, ripped foot of the spinnaker, Jesse's trapeze wire which went three minutes before start of racing on final day and they also broke their spinnaker pole launcher.

The racing at the North Americans will start on Saturday and finish on Monday.

"They will probably do three to four races a day. But these boats are so fast so the races are only lasting 30-35 minutes. You cover a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time in these boats."

The wind, for much of the time at the Worlds, was quite strong and the Kirklands expect to race in similar conditions on Biscayne Bay this weekend.

"The wind is meant to blow on Saturday and Sunday so it will be more fun and action for us," he said.

And with more wind there is more danger of capsizing in these boats which are one of the highest performance boats in the world – certainly in the Olympics.

"If you lose your balance at that speed for one little instance it can unravel pretty quickly," said Zander.

The Kirklands expect the North American Championships to be a much smaller event than the Worlds where there were over 60 boats on the start line.

"It will be a smaller event. A lot of the Europeans (at the Worlds) are going back to Europe while some other Europeans are shipping their boats to Miami but they will only do the Miami OCR (Olympic Class Regatta which will be held shortly after the North Americans)."

Zander said that racing regattas back to back can be tough in a 49er.

"You can get burnt out on this boat – your body just gets shredded. All of my cuts (suffered at the Worlds) are just starting to heal now. The majority of guys doing the North Americans are the younger and more greener sailors – novice teams like us who are just trying to maximise as much sailing as we can. The more experienced crews will show up for the Miami OCR which is sailed out of the US Sailing Center but we will be on the same course as the North Americans."

The Kirkland brothers finished in 36th place in the silver fleet at the Worlds but Zander said they were not expecting too much since it was their first regatta in the 49er.

"A big part of life is managing expectations and I think we had the right philosophy going in. We were frustrated with the breakdowns but we were happy at how we did when we were not hit. It obviously is not going to happen overnight and we knew that going in."

And they have found much camaraderie among the 49er sailors.

"All the guys are great – a lot more so than other classes. Because the boat can be so overwhelming at times everyone is pretty humble and the experienced guys are nice to the new kids on the block.

"They understand and remember what it was like and give advice freely."