Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) Optimist sailor Chase Cooper has placed himself thick in the hunt for top honours at the IODA South American Championships in Brazil.Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association’s 2012 Sailor of the Year is currently third in the 144 boat fleet and also leads the local contingent at the halfway stage of the regatta.He remains 12 points adrift of leader Gabrial Lopes (Brazil) after dropping his worst score (22nd) after the sixth race.Cooper, 14, has so far managed two podium displays and two top ten finishes competing in light and shifty winds and rain squalls at the Veleiros do Sul located on the muddy river waters near Porto Alegre.The Warwick Academy student will now seek to avoid taking risks to consolidate his position at the top half of the leader board when the regatta resumes tomorrow.Cooper warmed up for the IODA South American Championships with victory at last month’s Mar del Plata Regatta in Argentina.American Ivan Shestopalov is currently second in the fleet, four point ahead of Cooper.Bermuda’s remaining sailors in Brazil have struggled in the challenging conditions.Ceci Wollmann, who is the second highest local sailor, is in 68th place followed by her brother Mikey Wollmann in 80th place. Benn Smith is in 111th position while Peter Dill is in 130th.Bermuda’s sailors were due to compete yesterday as a four boat team against the other non-South American countries for the Nations Cup in a series of short races on a unique course.Today is a rest day.Meanwhile, Bermuda will be represented at the Garda Optimist Regatta that gets underway today at the Riva del Garda in Italy.Flying the Island’s banner are RBYC Sailing Academy sailors Campbell Patton, Yannick Hillier, Luke Madeiros, Matilda Nicholls and Thomas and Adriana Penruddocke who are among 1,300 sailors from 31 countries being represented at the regatta.The team will be joined by RBYC Sailing Academy guest Olympian coach Zizi Staniul and will be coached alongside several world class sailors.Nicholls, the second youngest competitor in the 1000-boat Optimist Juniores fleet, and Hillier arrived in Italy at the weekend to get an early feel for their new surroundings training with elite sailors from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and Great Britain.“It has been such fun to gain so much experience here in Europe,” Nicholls said. “We are really looking forward to our other Bermuda sailors joining us (yesterday) and the first race.”The pair have trained this week in frigid conditions with coach Zizi beginning his sessions with a run up the steep Garda mountains.“It was snowing up there,” Nicholls said. “But we were so hot after the running we did not notice the cold.”