Iain Percy talks youth sailing and Star sailing in his monthly column

And why Ben Ainslie is a real lightweight (and we're not talking kilos)

You will have to excuse me if my English is a little poor this month. I am recovering from a night out with Ben [Ainslie], Bart [Finn sailor Andrew Simpson] and the rest of the boys. Our Laser champ was back in the country for the day to pick up his MBE from the Palace, so we thought we would take the opportunity to have a night away from the gym programme.
There have been a number of different issues buzzing around in my head that I wanted to chat about this month. Last week the RYA organised a training camp in Weymouth for all the Olympic squads. The all-class concept is an extension of something that has developed naturally over the last couple of seasons within the Finn and Laser teams where we all benefited from working together out of Hayling Island, sharing ideas and coaches.

By all accounts the training week at Weymouth where all classes attended was equally successful. Having multi-class training as much as anything else is a sensible employment of good economies of scale, but importantly the healthy mixture of classes allows the serious training to be lubricated by a more relaxed atmosphere.

I believe it is so important that however far ahead our Olympic sailing appears at the moment the powers that be continue to search for ways we can improve further. What is great about our Olympic set-up, is that all the aspects that have been successful in the past have not been thrown out just because of the injection of extra cash.

I don’t like to go over something that has been ploughed up before but …the Youth programme must embrace the same philosophy and not unnecessarily change a system that has given people like myself so much.

My big concern is that giving so much extra support to the top few performers will only serve to alienate the group snapping at their heels and erode the squad feeling that used to be so prominent under Jim Saltonstall. Personal coaching at youth level provided by the RYA, forget it; sailing between the ages of 15 and 18 should be about building a squad of sailors for the future.

I’m starting to chomp at the bit to get out in the Star. It’ll be great to have a new challenge, especially as I will have the same group of people around, being partnered by the man mountain (and good bloke) Chris Brittle and helped by David Howlett the Finn coach. I’m waiting for Chris to complete his Finn sailing, a good thing for our Star sailing to be honest, because under the guidance of David he will learn masses over the coming season.

I’ve just had a call from Ben who is also feeling a little ropy. He’s been working very hard with the Americans and I don’t think he’s had the time to get out much down under, judging by the fact that last night he was a bigger lightweight then ever!

Happy sailing,

Iain Percy