It's a wrap at the TUUCI Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta in Miami
The Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta brings world-class sailing talent to South Florida in a five-day event that has become the largest international youth regatta in the U.S. and South America for sailors ages 8-18. Over 500 sailors compete in several youth classes, namely Optimist, ILCA (single-handed boats) and 420s (double-handed).
The Bahamian team was made up of 6 boys and 2 girls competing in the ILCA 4 and ILCA 6 fleets:
ILCA 6 - Eliza Denning, Finley McKinney-Lambert, John Alexiou, Patrick Tomlinson, Mary Jac Nash and Nash Cartwright
ILCA 4 - Armaan Manwatkar and Callum Pritchard
After 3 days of little to no wind, the ILCA 6 fleet completed 5 qualifying races and for the first time at this event all 5 Bahamians had fought their way to the top half of fleet of 85 competitors, qualifying for the Gold fleet on the final day of racing.
Lori Lowe, President of the Bahamas Sailing Association, congratulates all the sailors, commenting, “Their diligence to training is showing in their continued improvements on the race course. Their next steps are to work on their self-confidence and mental stamina and also the appreciation that they truly belong at the front of the fleet. This self-confidence only comes with time racing in big fleet events.”
Eliza Denning (Lyford Cay Sailing), who recently returned from the 2025 Youth Sailing World Championships in Portugal, finished as the top female and 13th overall in the ILCA 6 fleet and second among Caribbean national teams.
Finley McKinney-Lambert (Eleuthera Sailing Academy / Ryde School), who is currently studying and sailing in the UK, has been sailing a variety of boats other than ILCA and showed the benefits of a multi-class training program, finishing as the 2nd placed Bahamian and 19th overall.
John Alexiou (Lyford Cay Sailing) had his best result comparatively at this event, placing 30th and 3rd Bahamian in ILCA 6.
Patrick Tomlinson (Lyford Cay Sailing / Tabor Academy) and Mary Jac Nash (Lyford Cay Sailing) both showed moments of brilliance but suffered false start disqualifications on the final day of racing, which proved costly in overall positions - finishing 36th and 37th respectively. Nash Cartwright (Bahamas National Sailing School) finished just one place behind in 38th place overall, but with the best single race finish of all the Bahamians (4th in Race 4 of the qualifying series).
In the ILCA 4 fleet, Armaan Manwatkar (Lyford Cay Sailing) showed promise with a top 10 finish in Race 2, and 21st overall, and Callum Pritchard (Bahamas National Sailing School), after a difficult first race, persevered in his first-ever event of this level in the ILCA, with 4 of 7 top 20 positions to finish 24th overall (of 45 competitors).
Special thanks to Coaches Paul de Souza, Andrew Lewis and the team at SailBetter.
Full results are available on the event website: Tuuci Orange Bowl Regatta 2025
