Katrina Williams put local sailing on the map after navigating her team to the podium at the Susan Widmann Sinclair Women's Championship in Darien, Connecticut.

Competing under the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club banner, the 2006 Bermuda Female Sailor of the Year led her team to the silver medal at the regatta, which featured some of the world’s elite female sailors.

The local team produced an impressive nine top-three finishes, including victory in the fourth race of the 12-race series, competing in the one-design Sonar keelboat.

“It went well and we were leading the regatta after the first day, Williams told The Royal Gazette.

“Two of our team members have been sailing with our women’s team for three years now, but we brought on a younger female sailor who I used to coach to race with us as well. It is always nerve-wracking adding a new team member for an event but she did so well and her attitude was fantastic.

“Competition was fierce and the team that won the event had two Rolex Sailors of the Year onboard, while the team that placed third is from Norton Yacht Club, the host venue, so they knew the boats and race venue inside out.”

Williams and her colleagues’ skills were also put to the test in 10 to 20 knot breezes with gusts over 30 knots and rolling 3-5ft swells.

“It’s a running joke in sailing that a regatta venue always has typical conditions but you never get those at an event,” she said. “Long Island Sound is never windy in the summer but we had two days of 10 to 20 knots.

“Luckily my favourite conditions are the challenging ones where tactical decisions make a big difference, really light wind and big breeze, probably because we get so much of that at home.”

Claiming regatta honours was the team led by Carmen Cowles of the Larchmont Yacht Club in New York who won the last eight races to finish 18 points clear of Williams’s team. Norton Yacht Club’s Erin Maxwell led her team to third to round off the podium finishers.

Looking ahead to the future, Williams hopes to see more local female sailors compete in international regattas and is doing her part to help bring her vision to fruition.

“I am trying to build a pathway and road map for Bermudian female sailors to continue or begin to compete outside of college or Olympic sailing,” she said. “I do want to build a pipeline of talent within the female sailors of Bermuda to create teams to do these events.

“It’s so often that after college sailing or Olympic sailing there aren’t as many or as clearly defined pathways for women to continue to sail competitively. It can be hard unless you know a local boat owner to get out for Wednesday night racing or a Saturday series at home. But my ultimate goal is to build a calendar and find female Bermudians who want to learn or continue to compete at a high level and represent Bermuda.

“I still think about all I learnt from Paula and Peta Lewin and Leatrice Oatley when they asked me to sail with them and I want to be able to bring some of our younger female sailors in.

“We have so much talent coming through Endeavour and the local clubs that may not have a ‘traditional’ place to race. Perhaps this can fill a gap for some of the talent.”