Event to determine Bermuda's team for Optimist Worlds at end of year.

The fourth annual Renaissance Reinsurance Junior Gold Cup, Oct. 12-15, will feature 12 sailors from around the world and up to 25 Bermudian entrants in four days of racing in the singlehanded Optimist dinghy.

The Junior Gold Cup will run concurrently with the 58th annual King Edward VII Gold Cup (Oct. 11-15). The events differ in more than just their amateur and professional status. The pros are racing for prize money, but the Junior Gold Cup is about more than racing.

The international junior sailors, ages 13 to 15, are selected by national Optimist associations. They're flown to Bermuda by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, hosted by local families and gain an insight to Bermuda culture by spending a day in school with their hosts.

"The event grew out of an idea we had in 2002 and subsequent discussions with the International Optimist Association," said Les Crane, chairman of the King Edward VII Gold Cup. "We wanted to ensure that it would be something that would go down well with other Optimist countries and it has been well received."
The International Optimist Association has fleets in more than 100 countries and is raced by more than150,000 junior sailors. It is the only dinghy approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors younger than 16 years of age.

The Junior Gold Cup is the final qualification regatta to select the Bermuda Optimist Sailing Team that will compete at the Optimist Worlds in Uruguay at the end of the year.

Part 1 of the trials was held earlier this year and the top five contenders (in order) are Joshua Greenslade, James Anfossi, Jordan Saints, Haley Powell and Jason Saints.
International entries have been received from Australia (Edward Campbell), Finland (Hanna Hentinen), France (Sacha Penison and Yvann Thelier), Denmark (Jes Lynne Bond), Great Britain (Philip Sparks), New Zealand (Marcus Hansen), Switzerland (Kasper Keller), the U.S. (Pearson Potts) and Uruguay (Manfredo Finck).

The Junior Gold Cup will conduct four fleet races per day Oct. 12-14 on Great Sound. The final day, Sunday, Oct. 15, will see the championship sailed on Hamilton Harbour during the final rounds of the King Edward VII Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup is Stage 4 of the 2006-'07 World Match Racing Tour, the world's leading professional sailing series.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club is a private club and is the third oldest club holding a Royal Warrant outside the British Isles. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club was established on Nov. 1, 1844, and now has approximately 850 resident and non-resident members.

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