Bermuda will be among the 50 countries competing at this month’s Optimist World Championships in Napier, New Zealand.Flying the Island’s banner this year are Ceci Wollman, Macai Joell, Antonio Bailey, Rory Caslin and Micheal Barritt, who is the most senior member on the team.Wollman, Bailey and Joell are surviving members from the previous team that represented Bermuda at the 2010 Opti Worlds in Malaysia while Caslin and Barritt are the two new additions.Accompanying the team on the long trip to New Zealand are coach Zi Zi, country representative Hugh Barritt and Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association (BODA) president Anthony Bailey.BODA chief Bailey is encouraged by the team’s gradual preparations and reckoned the conditions in New Zealand could favour the Island’s youth sailors.“New Zealand is known for its heavy water conditions and strong breeze and given these guys are adapted to that they should do well in those conditions at least the three most senior sailors,” he said.Team members will be put through their paces during a clinic next week to be run by Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC). The exercise is designed to keep the sailors in pristine shape before they depart for New Zealand on Christmas Day.“The focus is on the team members going to the Worlds but we are going to include a few others just so that there’s some other competition,” Bailey said.“These guys’ preparations have been moderate and building to the point where they should be able to peak when they are in New Zealand. And we are so fortunate in Bermuda to be able to sail all year round.”Bailey said he has modest expectations for Bermuda’s representatives.“The team that is going to represent Bermuda is a mixture of experience and we are expecting them to do well,” he said.While in New Zealand, country representative Barrit will attend the International Optimist Dinghy Association’s (IODA) AGM on behalf of BODA.“Hugh will attend the AGM and make recommendations or accept any recommendations that are being put forth by other countries,” Bailey said. “We (BODA) will give guidance and then he will carry out our wishes.”As many as 220 sailors ranging in ages from 11 to 15 from 50 different countries are expected to compete at the upcoming fleet racing event in New Zealand where champions Thailand will rest their title on the line.The regatta is being hosted by Napier Sailing Club, located on the east coast of New Zealand, and will take place between December 30, 2011 and January 10, 2012.n Jesse and Zander Kirkland’s woes continued at the ISAF World Championships in Perth, Australia yesterday where they posted a DNF (did not finish), their second for the regatta- in the ninth race in the 49er fleet.The local siblings damaged their rigging which ultimately brought their day to an early end.“(We) blew out the kite tackline jumping off a wave (and) DNF,” Jesse Kirkland said. “We were looking good in 5th when it ended our race.“We had a good race going too . . . we were over at the start and had returned to the line and did a good job working our way through the fleet.”The Kirklands slipped a further three places down the leaderboard from 48th to 51st.