Bermuda’s top sailors are trying to raise $5,000 for a coach to help them compete in the Star Sailors League in Rio de Janeiro next month.

The 11-member team will take on Mexico, Cuba and El Salvador in the first round of the prestigious competition, which takes place from November 12 to 15, with the winner qualifying for the Star Sailors League Gold Cup and a chance to take on the top 32 countries in the world.

Rockal Evans is captain and main trimmer of Bermuda’s team, with Peter Dill (bow), Trystan Hocking (floater), Emily Nagel (pit), Maxwell Curtis (grinder), Ruairi Brown (trimmer), Dale Brangman (trimmer), Michael Wollman (skipper), Joshua Greenslade (tactician), Ruth Mello-Cann (reserve) and Jade Smith (reserve) heading to Brazil to represent the island.

For Evans, who is based in Australia, putting together a team to compete in the event has been a passion of his for nearly a decade.

“The league approached me maybe eight years ago to start a team and they appointed me as the captain/organiser,” Evans said.

“Ever since then, I’ve been the captain and doing a lot of the organisation with the help of Aaron McKittrick and Charles Penruddocke in Bermuda.

“We competed in 2023 and made it through the qualifier series to the final and I’ve put the team back together in the hope of doing the same again, but I feel a coach is vital.

“We don’t really sail together much and we are all over the world, with perhaps 40 per cent of the team based outside Bermuda, so a coach will be really handy. We also have three new people on the team this time around that’s never stepped foot on the SSL 47, the boats that we're going to be racing on.

“A coach will be vital, bringing the team together, bringing new people up to speed and just helping all around development, communication, co-ordination, making us trust in each other and building our confidence up.”

Evans is raising the money through his registered charity SSL Bermuda (Bermuda Keelboat Pathway, with a GoFundMe page set up to help raise money for the coach sitting at A$3,926 of the A$7,500 target, with the foundation set up to help aspiring young sailors.

“I feel honoured to do this again; it’s all about the youth,” Evans said.

“It’s about bringing the youth into the keelboat scene, introducing them to high-performance sailing, and giving them a pathway. When I went through my Olympic campaign, after I finished, I wanted to really give back to the community.

“I’ve become who I am today because of my connection with sailing, but more importantly the ability to have the opportunity to sail against international sailors.

“It’s one thing being on the island and being the best on the island, but when you hit the international sailing pool, you really get to see what life’s like out there. That's certainly the reason why I entered SSL and why I’ve been so passionate to keep going at this for the last few years. It’s to really try to give back and provide opportunities for those who don’t get the chance to be able to get out there and compete on the international stage.”

It has been a logistical nightmare to put together a team with the Star Sailors League having a strict criteria over who can represent their country, but Evans needed to secure an exemption for one spot.

“It is great that they acknowledged that because we are from such a small place that we have a small pool of sailors,” he said.

“The SSL has a strict selection criteria. You have to hold a Bermuda passport, you have to be over 18. It is also mandatory to have at least two women in the team and we originally needed three from inside the top ten of Bermuda rankings on SSL — the organisation has their own ranking list that captures anybody sailing in any fleet globally.

“On the Bermuda list there were only 36 people registered and because there were some people on there that didn’t have a Bermuda passport and some were under 18, the pool got even smaller. I literally asked 36 people and I only got one person that said yes.

“It took a lot of work and we still needed an exemption. Trystan Hocking was selected as the only SSL skipper on the ranking list and because we managed to have more than two females and basically met all the other criteria, they gave us the exemption for the second skipper.”

After months of phone calls and juggling the time difference between Australia and Bermuda, Evans will cut a relieved figure when he and his crew make it to the start line in Rio.

“It will feel very nice,” Evans said. “It’s a very good feeling. It makes me feel honoured every time and it’s something that I don’t want to stop doing. I want to show Bermuda sailors to the world.”