Sailors shine bright at Sir Durward Knowles back to school youth regatta

Sun, Sep 18th 2016, 10:39 AM

Bringing the island's junior summer sailing camps to a close, the Bahamas National Sailing School, along with Lady Nathalie Enterprises and the C. V. Bethel Sailing Club hosted the Sir Durward Knowles Back To School Youth Regatta on September 3 and 4 at Nassau Yacht Club and Montagu Beach.

The event was started in 2010 by Eleazor Johnson (Captain and owner of Lady Nathalie), Sir Durward Knowles and Jimmie Lowe. Since then, the regatta has taken place every year at this time, now with the support of the Regatta Desk (Ministry of Agriculture & Marine Resources).

On Saturday, Optimist Dinghies (sailed by the youngest kids - 8 to 12 years old), Sunfish, Lasers and Int'l 420's raced, and on Sunday, the sailors were treated to racing in E-Class Sloops as well as J22's, many for the first time in their lives.

The E-Class Sloops are small Bahamian built double-handed sailboats used by the C. V. Bethel Sailing Club in their junior program. The J22's are 22-foot sailboats designed more for adults.

Eleazor Johnson, along with Stafford Armbrister, the Sloop sailor behind the development of junior Sloop sailing and the C. V. Bethel Sailing Club were on hand to give away "Back to School" goodie bags filled with supplies; a tradition Johnson started years ago with Sir Durward Knowles. Also, as part of the regatta tradition, a participant's medal was awarded to each sailor.

The overall winner of the regatta was Tyler McSweeney, who sailed his Laser 'I Got This' to first place in all six races in the Laser Class. Another top competitor was Tristan Eldon, who won all 6 races in the Advanced Optimist Fleet.

McSweeney broke the tie between the two by racing on Sunday in the E-Class Sloop. Gabriel Newbold took top honors in the Optimist Green Fleet, while Darrell Roberts won the Sunfish Class. Cochise Burrows with crew Matteo Alliata won the I420Class and Marcus Parotti, who has recently moved to Nassau from Exuma won the E-Class Sloop series.

"It is so wonderful to see the continuation of this event and the support not only from our sailing legends Eleazor Johnson and Sir Durward Knowles but also the Nassau Yacht Club and 'The Regatta Desk' at Ministry Of Agriculture," said Robert Dunkley, director at the Bahamas National Sailing School.

"Thank you to you all. And a big thank you to Stafford Armbrister for organizing the E-Class Sloops for us. We look forward to working with you in the future in further developing our junior sailing talent in the country."

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