Bermuda's youth sailors will have added incentive to put their best foot forward during this weekend's PricewaterhouseCoopers Bermuda National Optimist Championship in the Great Sound.

The upcoming event is a component of the 2009 International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) South American Championship Trials, which will be used to select the Island's representatives that will compete in Ecuador next April.

This year will see one of the largest fleets in recent memory involved in the National Optimist Championship with nearly 50 sailors due to compete, among them 15 from North America who are to be accompanied to Bermuda by US Optimist Dinghy Association president Wes Whitmyer and US 470 Olympic sailor Amanda Clark.

The team racing event will comprise of a ten-race, two drop series.

Brian Bullhoes, who placed 18th at this year's South American Championship held in Peru, is the defending Bermuda Optimist national champion but has yet to confirm whether or not he will defend his crown later this week.

Among the Island's top contenders are Owen Siese, Sam Stan and Dimiti Stevens - to name a few- who were all recently put through their paces by coaches Paul Doughty, Pablo Sanguinetti and Luis Chiapparro during a team racing clinic which saw Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association (BODA), Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) and Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) combine their efforts.

All those representing Bermuda later this week hail from local clubs and the highly successful WaterWise programme which now forms part of the Government Middle School academic curriculum.

Bermuda coach Doughty, who has helped launch the careers of top acts such as Jessie Kirkland, Sean Bouchard and James Anfossi over the years, is bracing for what he anticipates will be a very competitive weekend of racing in the Great Sound.

"It should be a very exciting weekend and we are looking forward to having the Americans and Canadians coming down here to playing out as the leveler which increases competition," he said.

In recent years Bermudian youth sailors have performed admirably on the world stage with the likes of Kirkland, Bouchard and Anfossi all managing top ten finishes at the Optimist World Championships.