By DAHALIA SMITH, NG Sports Reporter, dahalia@nasguard.com

The Bahamas Sailing Association (BSA) is even more enthused about hosting future international sailing championships after The Bahamas' team on the sloop named 'John B', skippered by Gavin McKinney and crew men Peter Hauff and Lars Horn Johannesen, won the bronze medal out of a fleet of 18 at the International 5.5 Metre World Championships, Friday.

Now, the BSA will commence preparation for the 2009 Sunfish World Championships, according to race coordinator John Lawrence.

"This is a sustained program of the BSA. The International Sailing Federation (ISAF - world's governing body for sailing) endorses the BSA's hosting of this event because of our long term involvement in this championship. We sent teams in the snipe, sunfish and laser classes to represent The Bahamas at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so the BSA will have to start preparation to host this next prestigious event very soon," said Lawrence. "We expect to have up to 60 boats from around the world take part in the 2009 championships. The championships will be similar our junior national races which are held year-round at Montagu Bay. Hopefully by that time, most of our juniors will be in shape to represent The Bahamas at home," Lawrence said.

Winning the 5.5 World Championships, which was presented by Lombard Odier Darrier Hentsch Private Bank, was Norway on board the 'Artemis XIV', skippered by Kristian Nergaard with crew men Hary Melgas III and Mark Strube. In the seven-race series, Norway won three races and finished second twice, therefore Norway did not have to start the seventh race, registering 15 points in all.

The defending champion, Switzerland, got the silver on board the 'Ali Baba', skippered by Flavio Marazzi with crew men Stefan Haftka and Renato Marazzi, registering 21 points in all. Switzerland finished with one win, two seconds and a sixth place finish. They discarded the 10th place finish. The Bahamas' team on board the 'John B' picked up one win, one second place finish, one third place finish, two fourth place finishes and two ninth place finishes. The team discarded one of the ninth place finishes and registered 23 points overall.

Concerning the other two Bahamian boats, 'Silver Fox', skipped by Craig Symonette with crew men Peter Vlasova and Mark Covell, finished ninth with 46 points and 'Absolutely', skippered by Thierry Huguenin with crew men Fernando de Cardenas and Peter Bruce Wassitch finished 14th with a total of 83 points. Lawrence also put team Bahamas' accomplishment in perspective, as a predominantly amateur team competing against professional international teams.

"Overall we did very well, were well represented and should be proud of our accomplishment. Going into the last race Gavin had to restart. That cost us the silver medal," he said.

In comparison to the other teams, most of them sail year-round at various international events whereas The Bahamas' team had to use last week's Cup race (Duke of Edinburgh) to prepare for this World Championship. However, McKinney and crew attended the most recent European Championship as well.

"Some of the guys who came down sail professionally year-round. If we were to divide the pros from the amateurs in this fleet, The Bahamas would have won hands down. Also, what was nice was that we had an ISAF jury down to oversee the regattas and they were very impressed with how The Bahamas performed and the staging of the races," Lawrence said.

McKinney also won the bronze medal at the 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2007 5.5 Metre World Championships.

In related news, the BSA's junior sailors are scheduled to compete at this weekend's 3rd Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) Commander Challenge Cup set for March 22-24 at the Montagu Foreshore. The juniors are expected to sail in the sunfish and optimist classes beginning on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.