The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Goverment V Alfred Gray said he didn’t know the level of participation the sailors in the Bahamas Sailing Association’s National Sailing School competed at until he witnessed it for himself in Montagu Bay over the weekend.

Gray sailed on the committee boat and was responsible for blowing the horn to officially declare the winners of the Optimist Green Fleet for beginners, the Optimist Intermediate and Advance and the Sunfish Class as they competed in the Back To School Regatta organised by Eleazor ‘the Sailing Barber’ Johnson and held in honour of Sir Durward ‘Sea Wolf’ Knowles.

The one day competition on Saturday produced the following results:

Optimist Green Fleet

1. Tarquin Kelly, 5 pts

2. Jaxon Parker, 6 pts

3. Cameron Eldon, 8 pts

4. Sidney Cambridge

5. Stephan Bain

6. Petrius Fernander.

The competitors took part in a total of three races.

Optimist Intermediate

and Advance

1. Blake Roberts, 7 points

2. Tristan Eldon, 10 pts

3. Eric Boxerman, 11 pts

4. Richard Spurlock

5. Delancy Goodfellow

6. Liam Alexiou

7. Jason Spurlock.

The competitors participated in a total of six races.

Sunfish

1. Justin Carey, 5 points

2. Gregory Lindsay, 11 pts

3. Stafford Bain, 16 pts

4. Darrell Roberts

5. Kendrick Glinton

6. Prince Smith

7. Anthony Kemp.

The competitors had a total of six races.

As the minister responsible for regattas, Gray said he was delighted to have gotten his baptism in the junior sailing competition.

“I enjoyed the experience. This is a great place to start. These young men and women will certainly be our sloop sailors of tomorrow, so the raining ground available to them ought never to be ignored or go unnoticed,” Gray said. “So I invite them to invite their friends to join the sailing club because other than sitting at home and playing Nintendo, or other games, this is the type of experience that will teach them how to be focused.

“I’m advised that those who are participating in the sailing club are also doing extremely well in academics, so it’s teaching them to be focused and remain focused. So I am certainly going to be talking about this a little more than I’ve been doing in the past because this is the kind of sport that the government must support.”

Although the focus was on the C Class competition in the native sloop sailing, Gray said the Bahamas Government through his ministry, were sponsors of the regatta and he’s hoping that they can continue to provide some funding to assist the Bahamas Sailing Club.

Gray also participated in the awards presentation, which was just as exciting for the sailors, who were so thrilled to have been awarded the big trophies that they received.

On their performances, Roberts said he was pleased with his achievement.

“It was great. I stirred the ship well and I saw where the wind was and I took advantage of it,” said Roberts, who had a tremendous outing, bouncing back from a fifth place in the first race to get a second, three first and another second in order to second the win in the Optimist Intermediate and Advance Class.

The 13-year-old St Andrew’s School seventh grader said the competition was great.

“I love how my fellow sailors lined up the course as race committee members,” he said. “It was a good regatta. I was expecting to either come second or third, but I finished well and I came out on top.”

Carey, the champion of the Sunfish Class, said he expected to win and did it.

“The competition was good, but I knew that I had the ability to win,” said the 13-year-old home schooled student. “I think the regatta itself was very well organised and I just want to thank the committee for giving us a chance to compete.”

Robert Dunkley, who has the Bahamas National Sailing School, which comes under the Bahamas Sailing Association, headed by Lorrie Lowe, said the event was an excellent one.

“It was the kind of event that Sir Durward Knowles would be very proud of,” Dunkley said. “It was an event in which we brought the community together, which was the real mission of the Bahamas Sailing Association and the Bahamas National Sailing School.

“To see what happend today was wonderful. For me and everybody else who helped to organise it and even Minister Gray, I think it was a wonderful event and if he can combine the international sailing classes with the local native sloop sailing I think it would be great.”

Dunkley commended the members of the TA Thompson Junior High School, who has really embraced the opportunity to allow their students to come out and be a part of the training sessions on Thursday every week where they get a chance to develop their skills.

Not only have the young sailors got to work together, but Dunkley said they all have to take care of the boats that have been assigned to them and that has been one of the ingredients for the level of success they have been able to achieve so far.