PETE Ramsdale will be flying the flag when he represents Bermuda at the World J24 Championships in Holland in August. This will be Ramsdale's third World Championships but will be the first time he will be the skipper.

"I went to the Worlds last year in Kingston, Canada and two years prior to that I was crew at the Worlds in Newport, Rhode Island," said Ramsdale this week.

Calling themselves 'Team Sadiiqi', Ramsdale said the main concern for he and his crew will be adjusting to the larger fleets at the Worlds.

"The biggest challenges for us are mastering the conditions that are always so different from racing in Bermuda, and moving from a 12-boat fleet to a 60 to 70 boat fleet. This will also be our first European regatta as a team."

Two of his four-person crew are from Bermuda while the remaining two live in the United States and England.

While Ramsdale has been sailing since he was about four years old, he only started competitively racing in 1995 and was shortly introduced to the J24 class. And he has never looked back although he did crew at the 12-Metre Worlds in 2001 at a pitman and came third in the class.

His crew will be Shelagh Tasker who lives in Bermuda and who will be in the pit. She helmed for the team in the last two Worlds and this year is running the pit. Tasker is a veteran of offshore races and the Caribbean circuit, principally as navigator and has served as the Bermuda Class Captain. "She has been racing since the mid 1990s," said her skipper.

Ann Symons also lives in Bermuda is will be the tactician. In addition to the J24 Worlds, she has twice raced in the Bermuda Gold Cup as foredeck for the British women's team. She has been with this 'Team Sadiiqi' since 1996.

Don Wagoner will be on the foredeck. He lives in Philadelphia and this will be his third World Championships with the Bermuda team. Ramsdale said Wagoner brings a lot of "big regatta experience" to the team. The American also won Bermuda Race Week in the J24s in 2001.

Rory Barnes from the UK will be the mastman. Ramsdale said that unlike the rest of the Bermuda team, this will be Barnes' first World Championships with 'Team Sadiiqi'. Barnes has also sailed in Bermuda Race Week twice before and he brings local knowledge to the team regarding conditions in Holland. The team will also be using Barnes' J24 which he will take to Holland.

Ramsdale said that while he expects those sailors who live in Europe to trail their own J24 boats to Medemblik, Holland, other sailors from places like Australia will charter J24s when they get to Holland.

And he said that those with their own boats will not really have the upper hand over those who will be chartering their boats in Holland. He said: "Because they are one design boats, the big joy of it is that all the boats are practically identical. You can tweak them a little bit but you are very constrained on what you can actually do to the boats. That keeps the expenses of racing down - you can't win J24 regattas using a chequebook - you have to use your skill. This means that the J24 World Championships are in the grasp of people in Bermuda whereas the America's Cup isn't."

The Worlds will be held on a very large body of water which is damed so there are no tides or currents. "They do not come into effect which is similiar to Bermuda. In the Great Sound you do not worry too much about tides and currents. Also the wind is not influenced by mountains and valleys as Holland doesn't have any. And land doesn't have that much of an effect in Bermuda either," said Ramsdale adding, "the body of water is quite shallow and quite broad - something like 30 miles across so it is going to be like sailing on a large lake. The water will be choppier than we get here in Bermuda and it will be colder than what we are used to here. But all in all we hope that is will not be too different than Bermuda.

"One big challenge we will have - and you always get this when you race outside of Bermuda - is that the conditions can be tough. The conditions in Bermuda are absolutely ideal for sailing but the downside to that is when you race where it is not ideal it takes some getting used to. For instance when we raced in Newport at the Worlds a few years ago we were racing in 10-foot seas and you don't get that in the Great Sound!"

Ramsdale said the large fleets also take some getting used to. "It is a challenge going away from here and sailing in 60-70 boat fleets when we sail with 12 boats here. The first time you are on the start line in that large of fleet can be quite scary. That is a huge challenge to overcome. Plus no matter where you are on the race course there are always boats. The races also tend to be long - two hours - and you are mentally drained. You cannot relax for a second. But we are excited about going to the Worlds. It is nice to put yourself up against the best in the world - you can really measure yourself. Here in Bermuda you know all the other sailors out on the water and you know their moves and you know the boats to worry about and the boats you don't have to worry about. But in a big regatta like this you have no ideas who is the top dog - you have to treat everybody with the same respect. It just becomes a different game."

And Ramsdale said that many top skippers of the America's Cup have come out of the J24 class. "It is the biggest one design class in the world - something like 5,500 boats. There are so many America's Cup sailors that have come out of the J24 class. It has a very high standard and it is a very aggressive class. It is renown for it's aggression on the line to the extent that at the past two Worlds we went to we never got a practise race off - it was just recall after recall."

There will be nine races over five days starting on August 15. The teams will drop their worst finish.Racing starts on the Monday with practise races on Sunday and three days before that will be set aside for measuring the boats.