The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

KPMG continues its role as a major supporter of local youth sailing with its sponsorship of several initiatives on the horizon.

KPMG will return as title sponsor of this weekend’s Youth Winter Championships which will be hosted by the Bahamas National Sailing School and Nassau Yacht Club and will also aid the organisations as the Bahamas hosts 2019 Opti North American Championships this fall.

The Youth Winter Championships will be hosted March 8-9 in Montagu Bay with approximately 70 sailors in the Optimist Dinghies, Sunfish and Laser classes expected to participate.

The event began in 2013 and features sailors from islands throughout the Bahamas, including New Providence, Abaco, Long Island and Harbour Island.

In addition, sailors from the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands have participated.

This weekend will feature a seven-race series with student athletes from the Royal Nassau Sailing Club, Nassau Yacht Club, Bahamas National Sailing School and Lyford Cay Sailing Club expected to compete.

“We have to thank KPMG for their support, not only for this year, but for many years, where they have provided financial support for us to run this event and funds to put into our year-round sailing programme,” said Robert Dunkley, director of the Bahamas National Sailing School and RC Chairman at the Nassau Yacht Club.

“When we created this event, we had the aim of getting all the kids from around the Bahamas to come in and compete. It has allowed our junior sailors to make friends and learn about sailing in a competitive atmosphere.”

The Winter Youth Championships will serve as the first of three qualifiers for Opti North American Championships (OPTINAM) which will be hosted September 27 to October 4 at Montagu Bay. Team Bahamas will include 14 of the top junior sailing athletes from around the country. Scores for participants at the qualifying events will be based on a weighted scale for the KPMG (25 percent), Bahamas Youth Olympic Regatta in April (25 percent) and the Optimist National Championships in June (50 percent)

Chandra Parker, Optimist Dinghy Class Representative, said the OPTINAM will be the biggest sailing event the Bahamas has hosted to date.

Approximately 160-180 athletes from over 20 countries will participate and the organisation expects over 500 visitors in total.

“For our young sailors, this weekend is the first chance they will have to show the results of all of their training and I know they will be excited. For OPTINAM they need to be aged 12 unless they have proven through events like the KPMG that they are ready to compete on the world stage and many of them want to prove that so it will be a really exciting weekend on the water,” Parker said, Normally a country of our size will only feature four sailors, we did send a team of four to the 2018 champs in Mexico and two of those sailors will return to compete this year so we are excited to be hosting.

Dunkley said his organisation is aimed at removing the stigma from the sport of sailing an incorporate a wide cross section of society.

“The Bahamas National Sailing School, our whole mission is to make a difference in the lives of young Bahamians. It is not only for the private school kids, we have gone through 42 government schools since we began the programme in 2004. Every Tuesday, HO Nash

and TA Thompson, 25 of those kids come down and they spend a half day and then Centerville Primary comes down as well,” he said, “The word back from parents and teachers is that it is incredible the difference they see in these kids. One difference is focus.

When you’re out there and there’s nothing around you, you stay focused for a long time and that translates to other aspects of life for these young people. Last year at our sailing camp we had 139 athletes, 60 percent of them came from government schools.

This is open to absolutely anybody and everybody. We hope to see even more young Bahamians join us in our sailing club.”

KPMG has gifted $5000 to host the Youth Winter Championships and with $300,000 required to host the OPTINAM, corporate sponsors are welcomed to join KPMG as sponsors of the event.