21 youth sailors joined in for the sailing leg of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay on Monday July 3, 2017. Photo: Provided

Thad Lettsome finished 16th at the 2017 Laser Radial North American Championships in Vancouver, Canada. Photo: Provided

Nathan Haycraft represented the VI at the 2017 Opti NAms in Toronto, Canada. Photo: Provided

The baton was passed to Sailing by students from the Ebeneezer Thomas Primary School. Opti Race Team member Victoria Rowlette then carried it along the dock at Manual Reef to hand it to the Governor, John S. Duncan OBE, aboard a Tortola sloop. 

The sloop set sail accompanied by a flotilla of Lasers and Optis to take the baton around to the beach at Nanny Cay where it was passed on to the BVI Swim Federation.

Lettsome & Haycraft compete in Canada

Elsewhere in Sailing, Thad Lettsome finished 16th at the 2017 Laser Radial North American Championships in Vancouver, Canada.

There were 53 entries and they sailed a total of 12 races in with most days delivering strong winds and currents.

Lettsome was one of the youngest competitors at the Championship and put in some impressive results including four top nine finishes with his best result of 4th coming in race 5.

Also, Nathan Haycraft represented the Virgin Islands (VI) at the 2017 Opti NAms in Toronto, Canada, where 178 young sailors were racing in an extremely tough regatta sailed in light fickle winds, rain and fog.

Only seven races were sailed and just two in the finals series but Haycraft finished up the regatta on a high with a 1st place finish in the penultimate race..

Unfortunately the weather gods prevented any more races being sailed so Haycraft's final position was 11th in the blue fleet and 71st overall.