The Iain Percy column

The Finn gold medallist considers post-Olympic blues, and the importance of being earnest about your education

I had a big decision to make after the Olympics about whether to sail full time. A couple of years before the Games I agreed with myself that when the hangover wore off after the last race, I would be organised to go straight into a new project. Needless to say going into the event I didn't have a 'scoobie do' what I was going to do afterwards.
Apparently, like a form of bereavement, the post-Olympic blues can affect the winners and losers alike. This condition, as past Olympians described it to me, is basically the result of losing your major goal having spent two years learning to focus solely on that goal. Personally the winning eroded the effect of these depressing times but I can see the problem, or what I think my predecessors were getting at.

In an Olympic campaign you need to spend almost every waking hour focusing on your one goal. Then the event steals that direction from you, leaving you zigzagging around looking for an equally all-absorbing journey. The medal of course opens many potential pathways and in that respect some of the direction is restored, but it is definitely different.

I've concluded that my life is now much more of a spider web with many different projects fighting it out for my very limited brain space. From that respect therefore the Games has certainly not been a source of depression but it has caused a change of outlook. I'm sure you are all thinking: "Competing priorities, what's new?" And you'd be right, all I have actually done is joined the rest of the world.

And maybe I haven't quite made it to the reality of the working world yet, because I still have the time to write portentous drivel about my life. Anyway the point of writing that emotional rubbish is by way of an introduction to what I wanted to talk about, the merit, or otherwise, of full-time sailing.

Within the Farr 40 class there is a specific rule, which states that only half the crew can be full-time sailors. On first reflection I saw this as an obvious benefit to the owners but could not see how this had any appeal to the non-earning crewmembers. But it soon became clear that the amateurs hung on to the non-professional status with some vigour.

It really comes back to the question of the appeal of being a pro sailor. At Key West all our crew were the same, had equal responsibilities and had an equally good time, the only difference being, four of us were paid and four of the other guys weren't. Well, that's not strictly true - all the amateurs were on paid leave from their particular jobs.

If we look at the rest of the year it's the same pattern except of course that the pro sailors do tend to do more events. Being an amateur gives them the opportunity to compete at the biggest events in the year, and also have a job that earns them a good crust.

A similar situation occurs in the dinghy classes. You have the full time Olympic class sailors who compete in the same way as the amateur classes sailor do at their various competitions. The only real difference being that us guys have to stay out of the night clubs (apparently).

These observations do not mean to stress too much the negatives of a full-time career because there is one huge positive, and that is the ability to work towards major goals that matter like the Olympics or the America's Cup. It's these things that full-time sailing is about, it's not about lifestyle because I have found out there is plenty of great sailing available to the non-professional.

I believe that young sailors need to be made aware of these realities as early as possible. The success of British sailors at the moment should not encourage our budding stars to give up everything for their sailing dreams, because as they get older they might regret turning their back on the traditional path of employment. There will only be another one or two Ben Ainslies' over the next 20 years and for those two guys or girls, there will be a lot of people who wished they'd taken a different route.

It is of course possible to keep your options open until quite late by getting your education in between your sailing (or is it the other way round?). Jim Saltonstall always used to stress to his ferrets how education can be assisted by sailing. I always found the same, whenever I forgot my sailing goals completely the university work was also lost to the pub. People who know me will be aware of how little sailing I did at Uni!

That said, the sailing I did do was structured and that definitely helped me with my work. But the point is, that this path is available to anyone. I've been in Singapore recently and being there opens your eyes to how lucky we are to have the possibility to do both. The emphasis at their universities are more academic than social to say the least, our spods would look like David Beckham in Singapore, and as a result there is simply not the time to sail.

On top of this there is not the culture of taking years out to compete in sport. Having said that however much you put of the decision at some point you need to decide between sailing and a career.

I have had this conversation many times with my good friend and coach David Howlett and really it's him who tries to spell out these realities to me. All that said, I cannot bring myself to turn my back on professional sailing, nothing gives me a buzz like coming off the start line in an 80-boat fleet desperately fighting to hold my lane and then eventually popping out, knowing your race is in good shape, and thinking: "Suck eggs, losers." So I guess like everyone else, I am led by my heart and not by my head.