Photos: Youth Sailors World Champs Day 1

Five of Bermuda’s Youth Olympic hopefuls started competing at the Byte CII World Championships in Cannes, France today [April 7].

The 16 race regatta began today, and will take 5 days to complete, ending on April 11.  Alex Davis led the team during the opening ceremonies followed by the rest of Team Bermuda consisting of Rahiem Steede, Kalin Hillier, Dimitri Stevens and Owen Siese.

68 male and female sailors from 28 countries were welcomed by the President of the Cannes Yacht Club, the President of the Byte International Federation and the President of the French Sailing Federation.

Two thirds of the fleet have already qualified for the Youth Olympic Games and are using this event to gauge their standing amongst the Olympic talent.

Coach Pablo Weber feels that Bermuda has the potential to do well but will experience their strongest competition to date, especially from the European sailors and the Singapore team. Singapore’s sailors attend a special government funded elite athlete school which allow them the ability to train every day of the year with world class coaches, equipment and facilities.

Bermuda sailing has already qualified for a berth in the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore this August after Rahiem Steede’s steady performance at the North American Championships held last month in the Cayman Islands. Team Bermuda is being coached by Pablo and Dino Weber and the Team Leader is James Davis.

Click to enlarge images:

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The first day of races for the Byte CII World Championships opened under generally sunny but hazy conditions. The seas were calm with only a moderate ocean swell from the Mediterranean affecting the race course. Temperatures turned out to be fairly moderate with them hovering in the 65 degrees F range. Wind conditions were light and shifting at about 8 knots for the afternoon, in marked contrast to the forecast of 13 – 16 knots for the day.

The regatta officially started with a practice race, which was then immediately followed by three races.

Race 1

• Bermuda had an impressive placing with Owen Siese coming in 2nd behind the reigning World Champion from Singapore. Following him, Bermuda placed 13th (Kalin Hillier), 27th (Rahiem Steede), 32nd (Dimitri Stevens) and 38th (Alexander Davis) out of a total fleet of 44 male participants.

Race 2

• Had the following results; 12th (Kalin Hillier), 16th (Owen Siese), 23rd (Dimitri Stevens), 33rd (Rahiem Steede), and 35th (Alexander Davis).

Race 3

• Had the following results; 8th (Owen Siese), 17th (Rahiem Steede), 19th (Kalin Hillier), 29th (Dimitri Stevens), and 39th (Alexander Davis).

Overall results after three races:

• Owen Siese 5th
• Kalin Hillier 12th
• Rahiem Steede 24th
• Dimitri Stevens 30th
• Alexander Davis 41st

The Bermuda Team Coaches are happy with the race results today, and have great expectations for the rest of the Regatta.

[Thanks to Somers Cooper and the Bermuda Sailing Association for this report]

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