Bermuda's top Optimist sailors will be competing against each other this weekend as well as 20 juniors from overseas when the PricewaterhouseCoopers Bermuda Optimist Open and National Championships take place on the Great Sound.

Sailing will be staged on Saturday and Sunday and while the Open competition will be contested by all sailors, only Bermuda's youngsters will be eligible for the National Championship crown.

There will be five fleet races each day with the prize-giving scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

Early favourite will be Bermuda's Owen Siese, especially if he can produce the form which saw him finish in fifth place at the Opti North American Championships last July in the Dominican Republic.

Other top Bermuda sailors competing will be Sam Stan, Makai Joell, Antonio Bailey and Ellie Wollman.

It is expected that over 50 sailors will be taking part and a new feature this year will be the Green Fleet event for novice sailors run by Tom Coleman of McLaughlin Boats.

That fleet is expected to attract 20 young sailors from Bermuda and abroad. A BODA spokesman explained that Coleman runs these events all over the US and "is renowned for the energy he puts in and the fun he shows the kids".

McLaughlin Boats are also bringing in a container of charter boats for the overseas sailors.

The National Championship is a component of the 2009 International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) South American Championship trials, which will be used to select the team to represent Bermuda in Uruguay in 2010.

Bermuda's sailors, who are aged between eight and 15-years-old, come out of the local club programmes and also the Waterwise programme.

The Waterwise programme introduces sailing and water skills to all Bermuda's middle school students. This year 300 11-year-olds in Government middle schools learned to sail as part of their academic curriculum.