Opening ceremonies were set for Sunday in Coconut Grove for U.S. Sailing’s Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta on Biscayne Bay, which will serve as a key steppingstone to this summer’s Olympic Games.

The regatta, which runs from Monday through Saturday, will host more than 500 sailors from 44 countries in all 13 classes of sailboats set for Olympic and Paralympic competition in London.

Some of the competitors, including a handful of South Floridians, already have secured berths on the U.S. Olympic sailing team as a result of regattas held over the past few months. Others face upcoming qualifying regattas in order to make the team. But the Rolex gives them another round to face off against some of the same sailors they will meet at the Games.

The featured Olympic classes are: Laser (men); Laser Radial (women); 470 men; 470 women; Star (men); 49er (men); Finn (men); RS:X (men); RS:X (women); and Elliott 6m (women’s match racing).

Olympic-bound South Florida sailors include skipper Mark Mendelblatt and crew Brian Fatih, both of Miami, in Stars; and Fort Lauderdale’s Sarah Lihan in 470 women. Other Florida Olympians are Paige Railey of Clearwater in Laser Radials and her brother Zach in Finns.

Olympic gold medalist and 2011 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Anna Tunnicliffe of Plantation will skipper in the women’s match racing class — making its Olympic debut — with teammates Debbie Capozzi of New York and Molly Vandemoer of California. Fresh off a gold medal at the ISAF world championships in Australia, they are early favorites to medal in the Rolex. However, their shot at making the U.S. Olympic team won’t come until the spring at a regatta in Weymouth, England.

For disabled sailors competing in the 2.4mR, SKUD-18 and Sonar classes, the Rolex is make-or-break because it will determine which teams represent the United States in the Paralympic Games, which follow the Olympics. One of the tightest battles is expected in the SKUD class where Julia Dorsett of Boca Raton, three-time defending Rolex champion with skipper Scott Whitman of New Jersey, will sail against Jennifer French and J.P. Creignou, both of St. Petersburg, who recently took silver in the IFDS Worlds in Charlotte Harbor.

Headquarters for the Rolex Miami regatta is the U.S. Sailing Center in Coconut Grove.