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Beginning on 15 October 2009 the International Junior Sunfish Championship will run until Saturday October 17th. In only its second year, the Championship was inaugurated in 2008 to encourage the ever growing fleet of junior Sunfish sailors to compete at the very highest international levels. Competition and camaraderie are anticipated in equal measure.

The Sunfish World Championships 2009 will commence with a flag raising opening ceremony of represented nations in front of a packed house of dignitaries on Sunday 18 October. Racing will begin in earnest the following day. Seventy-two identical boats are to compete over a comprehensive series of races through to Saturday 24 October.

The Championships are being supported by the Bahamas Ministry of Sports, Youth and Culture and the Ministry of Tourism, the latter having designed a unique livery in the colours of the Bahamian flag for all boats that will sail in the series. Generous support from the private sector is being led by Pictet Private Bank & Trust as the presenting Platinum sponsor, Nestlé as the Gold sponsor and Atlantis, Paradise Island as the Silver sponsor.

The Bahamas has hosted the Sunfish World Championships on three prior occasions, most recently in 1995 in Abaco, the northernmost of the Bahamas' islands. The World Championships were last hosted in Nassau in 1988, a year during which Nassau Yacht Club member Donnie Martinborough became World Champion for the third time, having previously been Sunfish World Champion in Ricionne, Italy in 1985, and San Andres, Columbia in 1983.