LEADING foreign and local sailors take to the water on Sunday for the start of International Race Week in the Great Sound. And this year the competition will be boosted by the fact that the North American Snipe Championships will also be sailed in conjunction with the annual event.As in past years, the Snipe fleet will be based at the Spanish Point Boat Club which traditionally hosts the dinghy classes with the majority of the races being held off the club.

This year is also the 75th anniversary of SCIRA (the Snipe Class International Racing Association), and the sailors will be competing for Birney Mills Memorial Trophy.

So far 23 two-person teams have registered for the North Americans — five locals including one junior team as well as 18 teams from the United States, Canada and the Bahamas.

Those flying in for the North Americans include the current commodore of the Snipe class, several past commodores, the Snipe class treasurer as well as several former North American champions including the winner of the 2000 North American Championships, which were also held in Bermuda.

Jerry Thompson from the US will aim to take the Race Week Snipe trophy again this year, while at the same time vying for the North Americans.

Top Bermuda sailors like Malcolm Smith in the Lasers and Peter Bromby in the Etchells will again try and dominate even though they will not be in their preferred boats — the Sunfish for Smith and the Star for Bromby.

In fact in the Laser class there will be three Bermuda sailors who will be travelling to Rio de Janeiro this summer to compete in the Pan American Games.

Former World Sunfish Champion, Smith, will be joined by Sara Lane Adderley and Brett Wright in the Laser class next week as well as up and coming sailor Rockal Evans.

Smith will be going for his third title in a row and will try to hold off foreign competition like North American Laser class president Tracy Usher.

In competitions like the Olympics women and men generally do not sail against each other — the men sail the Lasers while the women sail in the Laser Radial which is a smaller rig.

But Smith said this week: “Women can sail full rig Lasers although it can be a bit tough on them if they are not up to weight which is about 170 pounds — and ideally it is good if you are about six foot tall. Well I have the 170 pounds but not the six foot!

“A lot depends on your fitness as well. Personally I would like to see them bring in the Radial as a different class for International Race Week. But if the wind conditions are right, it can benefit a women. In fact a woman has won (the Laser class) once before — she was an American Olympic sailor.

“Those sailors who do not weigh much will have an advantage in light winds and the heavier sailors in big winds — it is just one of those things.’

Of Rockal Evans, Smith said: “He is really a good up and coming junior sailor. He still has a way to go but he is one of the juniors who trains with us on the regular basis. He will also be going to the Island Games (in Rhodes) to represent Bermuda this summer. He trains hard. In fact we have a bunch of kids training with us but most are sailing Radials. Rockal is 190 pounds and six foot two so his size hurts him a bit in the light and medium air but helps him when there is a good breeze.”

Stuart Jardine from the UK will be returning to try for a repeat of his 2004 J24 class victory in this regatta. In the IOD class, the current World Champion Anthony Houston from Long Island Sound will be competing, as well as six-time World Champion Bill Widnall from Marblehead, Massachusetts along with 12 other skippers.

Local sailors Peter Bromby and Jon Corless are defending their 2006 victories in the Etchells and J105 classes respectively.

Bromby, who is currently in the midst of a campaign to qualify in the Star class for the 2008 Olympics in China, will be taking on among others veteran Bermuda Etchells sailor Tim Patton who has competed in numerous World Championships.

Also sailing in the Etchell class will be Bromby’s 2004 Olympic teammate Paula Lewin.

Prize giving will be held on May 4.

This year’s IRW will see global competitors from Australia, Sweden, Norway, Canada, US and the UK.

Inaugurated by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in 1927, Bermuda International Invitational Race Week has become an established international yachting fixture each spring — attracting top skippers from all over the world.