Six sailors from Bermuda will head off to New Jersey next week to compete in the second Byte World Championships.

The biennial five-day event begins on August 6 at Mantoloking, where organisers expect in the region of 100 competitors.

Bermuda's team will comprise four adults and two youth competitors.

Leading the team is 15-year-old Ben Wicks, Bermuda's top Byte sailor. The fourth-placed junior at last year's Byte North American Championship and seventh overall, this will be his last Byte competition as, earlier this year, he moved into the Olympic class Laser.

Wicks will be joined by another top youth sailor, O'neal Lindsay. Despite this being Lindsay's first overseas tour, the Worlds hold much promise for a young skipper who has shown a lot of talent in the class.

Pat Humphrey, Marion Watlington and Bermuda's leading Byte lady, Lisa Spurling, are the female team members.

This will be Spurling's third and biggest overseas regatta since she started racing Bytes in 1999. Dick Tulloch, a former member of the British Armed Forces sailing team, rounds off the group. Tulloch is currently Bermuda's national Byte champion.

Though local racing concluded in the spring, most team members can regularly be seen training in the Great Sound. Wicks, joined by fellow Bermudian Gareth Williams, has just completed an intense month of training with the 24-strong Portsmouth Harbour racing team, based in Kingston, Ontario.

This select team of Canadian and American youth sailors is led by Kelly Hand, 1999 Ladies Laser world champion and Pan-Am gold medallist, together with 1999 Canadian Yachting Association (CYA) Coach of the Year, Wes Smith.

One of the world's fastest growing fleets, the Byte is a single-handed racing dinghy, best suited to skippers between 100 and 150 lbs, regardless of age.

First introduced to Bermuda in 1999, the local fleet is 14-strong and races from fall through spring out of Sandys Boat Club in Mangrove Bay.