Home|Sports|Cecil Cooke Memorial Junior Regatta set for this weekendSports

The Nassau GuardianSend an emailOctober 17, 2022 146 1 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

The 9th Annual Cecil G. Cooke Memorial Junior Regatta is set to be held in the Montagu Bay this coming Saturday and Sunday.

A great display of junior sailing is expected this weekend. The event was initiated in 2014 by Cooke’s daughter Sandra Cooke, to honor her father who was one of The Bahamas’ greatest sailors. He competed with Sir Durward Knowles in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics winning the first ever gold medal for The Bahamas.

Growing from strength to strength over the years, the Cecil G. Cooke Memorial Junior Regatta has become one of the biggest events on the junior sailing calendar. Well attended by sailors from the New Providence clubs and a number of Family Islands, the young athletes race in three classes of boat (Optimist, Sunfish and Laser) with the top finishers all receiving trophies. The prestigious Cecil G. Cooke perpetual trophy is awarded to the first place finisher among the Optimist sailors who are the youngest group and those who Cecil Cooke would have been most encouraging and supportive towards in their pursuit of the sport of sailing.

Sandra Cooke is particularly excited about this year’s regatta, as her father was recognized posthumously on this year’s Investiture of National Honors, receiving the Order of Merit. She proudly received the award on her late father’s behalf from Governor General Sir Cornelius A. Smith at a ceremony held at Baha Mar on Heroes Day, October 10th.

Making this year’s regatta possible are Insurance Management, Darville Packaging and Pioneer Brite. As in previous years, the Nassau Yacht Club will be hosting the event, providing food and beverage to the sailors and their supporters. It will also be a venue for the awards presentation after sailing on Sunday.

For enquiries on junior sailing classes and details of how to register for this event, please see the Bahamas Sailing Association’s social media and the Bahamas National Sailing School’s website. www.bahsailingschool.org.