Bermuda will be among the countries battling for honours in the Team Racing World Championship that gets under way in Newport, Rhode Island on Thursday.

The island is being represented by two teams led by Benn Smith and Sophia Dias. Competing alongside Smith are Jason Saints, Julia Lines and Meghan Sherwin, while Dias is being accompanied by Alan Frith, Katrina Williams and Trystan Hocking.

Smith is feeling inspired and looking forward to participating in the two versus two team racing event which will begin with a round robin involving all teams.

“We had great practice racing and started to come together as a team and it felt really good,” he told The Royal Gazette. “We feel pretty comfortable and excited to get racing.”

The regatta is being held on Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and contested in the one design Sonar keelboat.

“The boats are pretty simple so I don’t think we are going to have any problems with the boats at all,” Smith said.

“The forecast says it’s going to be pretty windy, but we’ll see how it comes.”

After the initial round robin the fleet may be divided into gold and silver, time and weather permitting, for the second stage. That next phase may consist of one or more mini-round robins or knockout matches involving some or all of the teams in gold and silver, or a combination of both. This may be followed by a final knockout stage, time permitting.

Race wins from the opening stage will only carry forward for any mini-round robins, while no race wins from round-robins will carry forward to knockout matches.

The format and number of races for each stage will be confirmed prior to the start of racing on each day and the eventual regatta winner will be determined by combining the results of each team's boats.

Hosts United States, Great Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Argentina and the Bahamas are the remaining countries competing in the championships. All teams consist of between six and eight sailors with a minimum of two women and two men required on each.

The Team Racing World Championship is being sailed out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport and organised by the New York Yacht Club in conjunction with World Sailing.