On form team

Sarah, Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson look towards the Cascais World Championships

The Olympic spot for the Yngling class was originally seen by many as the class where one of the biggest battles would take place within Skandia Team GBR , between the teams of double Olympic gold medallist, Shirley Robertson, and that of her old crew Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb. However, this season Ayton and Webb with Pippa Wilson on bow have been dominating, while Robertson, now the mother of twins, has been having difficulties.

This year Ayton along with her team has stood on the podium at every single event they have attended (including second at the Rolex Miami OCR, second at the Princess Sofia Trophy, third at the Semaine Olympique Francaise and first at the Breitling Regatta, formerly SPA) a highly impressive, consistent performance. This has cemented the team as one of the major contenders at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais in late June and at present they seem to be the most likely team to win the British spot in Beijing 2008. Conversely Robertson has struggled to find her previous form and dropped out of the Breitling Regatta after a highly disappointing start to ’work on her boat’.

Following their win in Holland Ayton sounded ready to take on anything when we spoke to her about the upcoming Cascais event. “I think [Holland] has helped us feel really confident for the Worlds,” she explained. “All we need to do is to keep our stuff together and keep all the good team dynamics that we have got going on to make sure that we do not slip up.”


Above: On the podium at Breitling Regatta.

It might seem as though with this success a certain amount of extra pressure would be on the team to continue performing so well, but Ayton does not see it in the same way. “It is a nice situation to be in really. We feel as though we don’t need to go out and do anything special, just keep doing what we are good at. I feel pretty relaxed at the moment to be honest.”. To some extent we can understand this - with their past results standing as they do this year, it would almost be a surprise if the team were unable to make the podium at the ISAF Worlds.

Alongside this confidence Ayton admits she is not really thinking about the other two British Ynglings specifically as obstacles in her way. “Our goal has been to dominate and win the Worlds and that is what we are about. There are going to be lots of other boats out there on the course. Shirley [Robertson] and Victoria [Rawlinson] are just two more boats we have to beat to be World Champions and that’s what it is all about really,” she comments. However, Ayton does add that she is aware Cascais is part one of their Olympic trials and as such the other Brits are a relatively big deal.

Above: Robertson struggled to find form at the Breitling Regatta.

Aside from their results another reason why Ayton says things have been going so well this season is down to how well relatively new recruit, Pippa Wilson - who joined the two Sarahs just over a year ago - has been fitting in. “We have always been really big on the team work aspect and since Pippa joined us at the end of last year she has really bought a whole new dimension to our sailing and we just need to keep getting out there and do what we do everyday,” she comments.

Another relatively new addition to the team is that of their coach, Paul Brotherton. For a little over a year now Ayton, Webb and Wilson have been coached by the ex-Olympic 470 helm. “Paul has been with us for about a year now full time and that has been absolutely excellent,” says Ayton. “He is obviously an awesome sailor and he brings a lot to our team in terms of crew dynamics. It is also great to have someone onboard who he can just spot technique stuff from the coach boat the way he can. He really has just transformed our team and has a big part to play in our campaign.”

Many Olympians have been trying to bulk up in preparation for what most believe will be a windy and wavy World Championship in Cascais. However Ayton believes this won’t necessarily be the case. “We have been out in Cascais doing ten days on and five days at home for the last few weeks,” she explains. “I think it is going to be a variable event.” So far their experience of Cascais has seen a real mix of different conditions. “In the mornings it has been quite light and then some days it builds up to 15-20 knots and other days it just stays quite light. It is quite a dynamic place to be sailing really - it is quite challenging in that you never get the same water state on any given day. So it is going to require a real amount of flexibility in set up and in technique. It could be windy but it could be five knots - you just don’t know.”

Above: On the way to second at the Rolex Miami OCR.

While out in Cascais the team have been training with Brotherton coaching them, but they have not been doing a great deal with other British teams. ”We have our sailing partners Ulrike Schuemann, Julia Bleck and Ute Hoepfner - the German No 1 ISAF ranked Yngling team. We have also been sailing a little bit with Victoria [Rawlinson] so it has been good fun sailing with the others out in Cascais getting prepared,” Ayton explains. She also states that much of their time on the water is given over to crew dynamics and training.

Following Shirley Robertson’s retirement from Breitling Regatta stating technical boat issues we wondered if Ayton and her team spent a great deal of time with their technical programme, given they seen to spend so much time working on crew skills. “The Yngling is a big heavy boat and to some extent they all go the same speed,” she comments. “To sail it fast you really need a good all round approach. For us it is important to have the flexibility in our set-up through the wind ranges.” Ayton adds that a lot of what they are trying to do with their boat in terms of the set-up is to keep things as uncomplicated as possible. She says they feel it is most important to simply understand the basic principles of what everything does and that by itself should see them remaining competitive through the wind range. “We are not really in any major technical programme. We just want to head out there and sail well,” Ayton concludes.

Ayton, Webb and Wilson are very much the ‘on form’ Yngling team at the moment. Of course it is always dangerous to bet against the highly potent Shirley Robertson but if someone forced us to bet at this stage on one boat making the podium in Cascais, we would be hard pushed to find a more likely candidate than Ayton and her team.