The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

FOR the second consecutive year, the Exuma Sailing Club was a cut above the rest at the Sir Durward Knowles National Junior Sailing Championships which wrapped up on Saturday at the Montagu Bay foreshore.

The winning sailing club emerged as the overall champion for the second straight year and head coach Dallas Knowles could not be more proud of his junior sailors.

“I am relieved and impressed with their performance. They had a tall order because repeating as champions is very difficult. They had a pretty big target and they had a lot of mental pressure on them and I think that kind of showed on the first day. 

“It was a little bit of a slow start for the team as we made some errors in all of the classes and found ourselves having to dig out a bit of a hole, but I just tried to keep the team relaxed and focused and tried to have fun. I think once they started to enjoy themselves and not worry so much about the results and the pressure they actually performed much better,” he said.

The Exuma Sailing Club once again repeated as champions in the sunfish and E classes.

The victors had their best performance of the Sir Durward Knowles National Junior Sailing Championships in the sunfish class.

The Exuma Sailing Club completed a clean sweep with Tanaj Manos taking the top honours with seven points.

Placing second was Emit Knowles at 11 points and his clubmate Dai Major was right on his heels with 12 points for third in the sunfish class.

The Lady Kayla, skippered by Joss Knowles and Kianno Hutchinson, defended the Exuma Sailing Club’s bragging rights in the E Class.

The tandem came first with 8 points.

One Bahamas, skippered by Manos and Carmen Forbes, secured the second spot with 15 points.

Lady Annmarie, skippered by Cristo Cartwright and Delano Davis of the Mack Knowles Junior Sailing Club (MKJSC), clinched the third spot with 15 points as well.

Coach Knowles spoke about what sets the Exuma Sailing Club apart from others as it relates to junior sailing.

“We just have a really good crop of senior sailors that are 15, 16 and 17-year-olds and have been doing it for a little while and are really comfortable racing against big groups of people and in chaotic environments. We still have the advantage in the E Class just because we have been doing it for 11 years now. The kids are very comfortable in any conditions in the E Class and I think you saw that in the last two days when the wind was very heavy they were still comfortable and started winning a lot more races,” he said.

The Bahamas National Sailing School (BNSS) was well represented in the optis and laser classes.

 James Hunnicutt, of the BNSS, claimed the victory in the opti green fleet with 2 points. 

Yori Carroll, of the Harbour Island Sailing Club, trailed for second with 7 points and his clubmate Kaelyn Mackay was third overall with 9 points.

It was the BNSS clinching the top spot in the opti championship.

Leon Zarchan led that class with 6 points. 

Drake Knowles, representing MKJSC, wrapped up in second with 11 points. 

Javien Rankine, of the Eleuthera Sailing Academy, was a distant third place finisher with 20 points.

It was a close finish in the ILCA class but Johannes Maritz sailed to a first place result with 7 points.

J Knowles, of the Exuma Sailing Club, concluded in second with 10 points and his clubmate Hutchinson was one point behind at 11 for third.

Coach Knowles commended his older sailors for their efforts over the weekend.

“I think it really was our senior guys that carried the team. They were good leaders, helping a lot of the younger kids, good examples, had great sportsmanship the entire weekend and they never really let the pressure get them down. They just kept on going and had confidence in themselves so that was a big formula for why they ended up doing so well,” he said.

Next up for the national sport will be the 69th National Family Island Regatta slated for April 22-26.