The best young sailors from around the World will descend on Bermuda next month for the seventh Renaissance Reinsurance Junior Gold Cup.

Run in conjunction with the Argo Group Gold Cup professional World Match Racing Tour event, this mini "world cup" invitational brings some of the most accomplished youth sailors from around the world to Bermuda for a sailing event contested in International Optimist dinghies.

Headlining the fleet of international guests is Ignatio Rogala (ARG). He was third at the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) world championship and is Argentina's national champion. Max Hibler (GER) is the winner of the IODA European Championship and is Germany's national champion, too. Annabel Vos (GBR), Taylor Burn (NZL), Douglas Campbell (AUS) and Frederick Naygaard (DEN) are also national champions in their countries.

"It is a unique opportunity for Bermuda local sailors to compete against the best in our own waters," said event chairman Somers Cooper. "Renaissance Re provides financial support to help fly the invited youth sailors to Bermuda, providing them with coaching, charter boats and equipment required for competing. This year we hope to have at least twelve talented sailors joining us representing North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Caribbean."

In the past 30 years Optimist sailing has flourished in Bermuda, and has taken off since the formation of an official organisation for the dinghy in 1998. Since those early days the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association has trumpeted the sport on the Island and has had no small measure of success, sending teams to the worlds six times since then.

Today Bermuda also sends teams to IODA regattas in North and South America and often Europe.

This year Bermudian Owen Siese placed 5th at the IODA North American Championships in The Dominican Republic. Other regional and national events such as the US and Canadian National Championships, New England Championships, CORK and Orange Bowl events have seen Bermudians winning or placing very high on a consistent basis.

Once out of Optimists, local sailors have continued to excel on the world sailing scene. Some of Bermuda's best adult sailors today such as Stevie Dickinson, Zander Kirkland, Katrina Williams, James Doughty, Jesse Kirkland, Gareth Williams and Rudy Bailey learned the world-class skills necessary to enable them to represent Bermuda in other classes from their start in the Optimist.

Bermudian sailors from the Opti class have been hot prospects and been heavily recruited by boarding schools, colleges and universities and seen as strong competitors for interscholastic and intercollegiate sailing teams. Many people think the next Olympic medal for Bermuda will come from the ranks of these sailor athletes.

The Renaissance Re Junior Gold Cup will conduct four fleet races per day on Great Sound starting on Thursday, October 8th run by volunteers from the RBYC and BODA.

The final day, Sunday, October 11, will see the championship sailed on Hamilton Harbour during the final rounds of the Argo Group Gold Cup if time and conditions allow.