Sarah Ayton talks to madforsailing

In the build-up to Hyeres Olympic regatta, Lynsey Thomas talks to Sarah Ayton about sailing, sponsorship and social life

Sarah, you were Shirley Robertson's training partner for the 2000 Olympics, what has that bought to your campaign?
Sailing with Shirley gave me a chance to understand how much work and commitment is really involved in an Olympic campaign. She taught me what I needed to know and if I didn't, to ask lots of questions. It's really important to choose the right people to talk to.

What did you learn from Shirley about campaigning?
Sailing in an all-girl fleet there is a tendency for it all to get quite bitchy. Shirley taught me that to be in control of where you want to be is really important and because of that you have to become quite selfish.

For the first time in history all of the British girls made the gold fleet at the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma. Sailing in a group like that must at times be a benefit to you, but do you sometimes feel you are giving more than you're receiving?
I am really focused at the moment on the Worlds in July, and I'm really keen to achieve so that I can move up to the next level of funding and do my own thing with my own coach. It is sometimes frustrating because you feel you can't be in control of what you want to be doing because there are six other girls. Having said that having the other girls there is a real incentive and drives you on to do better.

What did you learn from working with people like Paul Hobbs, Steve Mellors and Jo Richards?
Working with all of them has given me a whole understanding of the rig and sail and a lot more technical knowledge. Because of that I have become more confident in my sailing and more sure of the decisions I am making. If I want to change or improve something on the boat I now have the knowledge to understand what will happen if I do it and the reasoning behind it.

You now have a sponsor to help you through the next year and hopefully the next four, what is that going to mean for you?
Fujitsu Soft Tech are my sponsors and it was finalised about a month ago. I am absolutely delighted as it means I'm able to afford perfect equipment and my own coach. Although I haven't got a contract with them at the moment they are going to back me definitely for a year and hopefully that will continue all the way to the Olympics. Their managing director is a sailor and they want to do the whole thing properly.

You have recently got engaged, is having a commitment to your relationship going to get in the way of your sailing?
Getting engaged has actually made me a lot more relaxed, I was probably more stressed before but having that commitment there we really know where we are with one another. Also we both think it's important that we spend time together when we're not sailing and we get to go off and do crazy things, we're both still quite young. We probably see more of each other because we both sail at the same events and we can understand what each other is going through if one or other of us is a bit stressed.