With young girls from the local Optimist dinghy fleet carrying the flags of 12 teams representing seven nations, Premier Alex Scott officially opened the Virtual Spectator ISAF Women?s Match Racing World Championships at Camden last night.

Starting this morning, 11 top-ranked women skippers from around the globe, Bermuda?s Paula Lewin and 2004 ISAF world champion Sally Barkow of the United States included, will compete in a continuous round-robin format battling not only for the honour of becoming the 2005 world champion but also for a shot at winning $5,000 in prize money and a chance to compete with the men in next week?s prestigious King Edward VII Gold Cup.

?All of the top women are here and it is like coming home for us,? said Klaartje Zuiderbaan of Holland, who is ranked number four in the world and whose team won last years? Cicada women?s match racing championship in Bermuda and went on to compete in the Gold Cup qualifying rounds.

Zuiderbaan and her team not only face Olympian Lewin, who is ranked 12th in the world, but must also defeat Barkow (ranked seventh) and French phenomena Claire Leroy (first) if they are to defend their title.

?We know we are up against the best in the world and any one of the 12 teams could win it here,? added Zuiderbaan. ?But because we did well last year we feel very confident starting out.?

The match racing this weekend will feature not only the 12 women?s teams but also the men?s unseeded qualifying rounds for the Gold Cup, which puts 12 J-24 and 10 IOD boats on the race course.

The women will race in the four-person J24s, which have been re-rigged and feature brand new sails, making the boats nearly identical in speed and performance ability.

The men will sail in the heavier International One Design boats.

The course will be M-shaped and the race committee will run four legs, with leg one heading upwind and leg four finishing downwind.

?By utilising this M-course format, we will run over 132 races by Tuesday with the women sailing up to ten races in one day,? said Principal Race Officer Charles Tatem.

?It will be non-stop racing and an endurance test for all of the sailors.?

This is the third year in a row that Bermuda has held a women?s match racing event just prior to the Gold Cup and the country is now internationally renowned for its promotion of women in sailing.

?We have been consistently promoting women in match racing and have always made an effort to get women here to compete and to qualify to race in the Gold Cup,? Tatem added.

?We now have the honour of hosting the Virtual Spectator?s ISAF Women?s Match Racing World Championship which takes this to a whole new level.?

While the women?s teams will offer high drama, the men and one other woman will be locked in a continuous battle as they compete in the ?open,? unseeded qualifying event of the Gold Cup for a shot at racing against the seeded challengers and a portion of the $100,000 prize money.

The unseeded sailors are some of the world?s best including current members of teams challenging for the 32nd America?s Cup ? South African sailor Ian Ainslie of Team Shosholoza, New Zealander Cameron Appleton of the French K-Challenge Team and Poland?s Karol Jablonski who helms the Spanish Desafio Espanola challenge.

Chuck Millican and the crew of sailed home first in last Sunday?s Sir John W. Cox Memorial Race.

Millican?s blue-hulled J30 led the fleet in a breezy sail out of Hamilton Harbour, up the North Shore to Ferry Reach and then back to town, with a turn around White?s Island before the finish.

He held a substantial lead over his nearest rival in the racing class, Steve Sherwin?s , while Martin Purser?s took third place.

Nick Weare?s took the honours in the cruising class following a close battle with , skippered by Paul Hubbard. Ed Faries? finished third, passing Preston Hutchings? on the final turn at White?s Island.