Ian Walker's Olympic Diary - 4th September

In the run-up to the Olympics, British Star sailor and 1996 470 Silver Medallist, Ian Walker, writes from Sydney

It’s great to be back on the water again, but the conditions remain poor for sail testing. We had a gentle shake down sail on Friday to test Mark’s arm and it's fine. The burn has heeled remarkably quickly and it's no longer a worry.

On Saturday we had gale force winds from the south-west behind a westerly change, and we were the only Star to go out. Star boats are notoriously hard to sail in very strong winds because of their huge sail area and delicate mast. One slip on the runners, a mistake in how you have the mast set up, or even just a roll in to windward on a run - all can lead to a dismasting.

But we are only too aware that we have had little practice in these conditions, after a winter of fair winds in the USA. We are also aware that the Olympics could be raced in any conditions and we must be ready. So, not wanting to risk our best masts, we put on an old mast and went out to throw the boat around.

What a great sail! We must have done about ten reach-to-reach gybes to warm up, and then beat back up the harbour to do a long run all the way down practicing run-to-run gybes - which are a lot harder. We did this several times and were really pleased to get to grips with it. We now have a system for what to do in every circumstance, and after executing some gybes in about 30 knots we decided we would quit while things were going well.

Mark really is a great crew and on days like this I realise just how good he is. He needs every bit of his 6 ft 7 inch, 19 stone frame to be able to pull the mast back in these winds. The timing on the runners - that hold up the mast in the gybe - requires split second reactions. It was really important to get that out of the way - and to see the improvement. I now feel quite confident in these conditions - although we need to go and do it all again out to sea in the massive waves!

Saturday night we took Chris Mason and Derek Clark out to dinner in The Rocks - a restaurant and 'party zone' near the Harbour Bridge. It was a ‘thank you’ to them, before they fly home today. They have both worked like Trojans on our boats and sailed our training boat against us here in Sydney. Chris has also coached us at several events over the last year, and is a very good influence on our campaign. Well, he normally is, but Saturday night we did let go a bit, had a few drinks and ended up in a nightclub.

Sunday was a bit of a struggle, but the conditions were terrible, as the sea breeze waged an all-day battle against the westerly gradient wind. We went out for a few hours to look at our potential race sails and photograph the mainsails so that we can analyse the shape on the computer.

The next five days will be very important.

We will train today and then we have a training regatta on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was when we were hoping to finally test all our equipment and sail settings before having a bit of a break. In reality, we are way behind that and are just hoping to find some speed to help us decide what gear to use - this remains our biggest problem. I don’t mind admitting I am nervous about this and I am very much trying to go back to basics to solve it.