The 30 junior sailors who will participate in the inaugural Renaissance Reinsurance Junior Gold Cup were announced yesterday.

Starting today and held concurrent with the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, the development programme will welcome some of the world's most accomplished youth sailors from Australia, Denmark, Finland, Poland, New Zealand, Sweden, the US, the UK and US Virgin Islands, as well as 21 Bermudian Optimist sailors.

Over the course of the week, the Junior Gold Cup schedule will mirror that of the skippers and teams participating in the adult version. While match racing in Bermuda's legendary Swedish Match Tour event takes place on Hamilton Harbour, the juniors will race in their own series on Bermuda's Great Sound and Granaway Deep. The week also includes an opportunity to learn more about sailing through practical drills in Optimists and 'chalk talks' with the world's top sailors.

"Our visitors can expect 'homes away from home' with the finest Bermuda hospitality," said John Gardner, President of the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association. "They will become Bermudians for a week. They will go to school, play on our beaches and visit attractions. Then, together with their hosts, they will also be able to meet and learn from sailing's finest international role models."

A flat-bottomed, 8ft long dinghy with a seemingly chopped off bow and a single spritsail, the "Opti" has been described as "a bathtub that breeds some of the best sailors in the world".

"If you talk to the Gold Cup competitors, you will find a great number of them grew up racing Optis and developed lifelong friends around the world," said Les Crane, Commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. "For the past several years we have taken the opportunity to have the sailors coach our local young sailors. With the help of Renaissance Reinsurance we are able to bring some of the world's best Opti sailors to Bermuda to join in that experience. We want to start these young sailors off early in one of the finest traditions in sailing."

Bermuda juniors participating (alphabetical listing): James Anfossi, Anthony Bailey, Ben Bernardo, Sean Bouchard, Blake Burgess, Jonathan Dill, Campbell Duffy, Martin Finegan, Lance Fraser, Eleanor Gardner, Joshua Greenslade, William Hutchings, Peter Miller, Johnny Norfleet, Cameron Pimentel, Haley Powell, Oliver Riihiluoma, Jordan Saints, Jason Saints, Ryan Saraiva, Elijah Simmons

International junior participants (alphabetical with home country: Taylor Canfield (U.S. Virgin Islands), Nicklas Dackhammar (Sweden), Mikko Hentinen (Finland), Devin Laviano (USA), Hannah Mills (U.K.), Hannah Nattrass (Australia), Lukasz Prsybytek (Poland), Nicolai Sehested (Denmark) and Paul Snow-Hansen (New Zealand).