Last month's Optimist World Championships in Qing Dao, China, provided the toughest testing ground yet for Bermuda's young sailing team.

In addition to sailing skills, the event demanded extreme patience and a mental toughness that comes only from years of experience.

The combination of extreme light air and strong current, swell, fog, abandoned races and race committee error provided the severest of tests.

Yet the Island's young sailors rose to the challenge. They coped with stress, disappointment and even boredom at times.

"Four out of five of our sailors managed at least one top 20 finish," said team leader Paul Doughty, "which is excellent in world class competition. And Jesse Kirkland's overall placing at 13th out of 208 boats is astonishing!"

But the real triumph was Bermuda's qualifying for the Team Racing event by placing 14th out of 40 countries, beating out such notable sailing powers as Great Britain, the United States, New Zealand, Norway and others.

"The top 16 countries qualify for the Team Racing event," explained Doughty. "And Bermuda has never made it into that bracket before. So this year was special. We were knocked out in the first round but we are now there with the 'big boys'.

"This continuous improvement is largely due to the unrelenting commitment of our coach, Pablo Weber, and to the generous support of our sponsors. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these," said Doughty.

The principal sponsors of the Bermuda Optimist Team are Tyco International, Swiss Re, Renaissance Re, Bank of Bermuda and Jardine Matheson.

"Other than Jesse, our sailors were somewhat disappointed with their individual overall placing," added Doughty. "But they did manage good individual races and they stood strong in the face of extreme conditions.

"What is amazing is that, after all the training and international competition they have had, they were forced to sail in conditions they had absolutely no experience of - extreme light air with strong current.

"Race committees usually abandon races when the wind is that light so you don't get experience in those conditions. And current is minimal to non-existent in Bermuda and on most world class race-courses."

Only seven races were sailed in the championship and in the final race well over half the fleet failed to finish in the time limit because of the light winds and strong current.

The Bermuda team experienced some vicarious success as a result of growing friendships with the Argentinians who swept to victory in every category.

The evolving relationship with Argentina is due to the contact arranged by coach Weber.

"Our team was thrilled that their friend and training partner, Lucas Calabrese, was crowned world champion this time, after narrowly missing it last year," said Doughty. "Pablo has twice brought Lucas to Bermuda to train with our team over Christmas and he is very much a part of our Bermuda family."

Calabrese is the second Argentinian youth that Weber has coached to world champion status.

In addition to the individual world champion title, the Argentinians also won the Team Racing regatta and were the top team in the overall regatta.

As for next steps, Doughty said: "Our sailors still need much more international exposure in large fleets. With the continued support of our sponsors and Pablo's disciplined coaching, we may well have a world champion of our own one day!"

Overall placings for the Bermuda team were: Jesse Kirkland 13; James Doughty 95; Jonathan Kempe 120; Edward Thompson 155; Hussayn Brown 183.