Mansfield and O'Brien

Ireland's Star helmsman, Mark Mansfield, talks to Ed Gorman

The increasing professionalism of Olympic sailing and the advent of Lottery funding and other sources of backing, which is enabling yachtsmen to sail full-time throughout the entire Olympic cycle, is making it harder and harder for amateurs to get to the Games.

One who has made it this time is Ireland's Mark Mansfield, who is racing with David O'Brien in the Star class. While most of their rivals have been going at it full-time for two or three years, Mansfield, aged 38, was still behind his desk at the building society where he works in Cork until two months ago.

Nevertheless this talented pair, who launched their part time campaign 14 months ago, have achieved significant success in the build-up to Sydney with an excellent third place at the recent class world championships in Annapolis, which qualified them for the Games fleet.

Despite the relatively short work-up Mansfield, a veteran of four Admiral's Cups and twice the 1720 class European champion, believes he has a reasonable chance of doing much better than his 12th place in the class at Savannah. "We've come third in the worlds, so there's no reason why we can't do it again. But we're just going to have to get a few breaks. If we do and start well, we have a chance," he said.

He points out that although many of his rivals are full-time pros, few of them spend all their time in Stars. But adds: "I think probably we're at a slight disadvantage - you know up to two months ago I was sitting behind my desk whereas a lot of others were out sailing. There's also the problem of time for organisation and structuring a campaign which is hard if you're trying to fit it in after 8-10 hour days in the office."

Mansfield and O'Brien are among a minority in the 16-strong fleet using North sails whereas most, including Britain's Ian Walker and Mark Covell, have chosen Quantum sails out of San Diego. During their training here they have concentrated on trying to deal with the swell, which often builds on the courses outside Sydney Harbour Heads where the Stars will race much of the time.

On the eve of the regatta, Mansfield offered a fascinating insight into how he has tackled this challenge. "Certainly there is a swell where you can find yourself surfing but also going with the swell upwind, which is something a bit unusual to most people (because the waves bounce back off the cliffs at the Heads).

"It takes a very specific steering of the boat to be able to get the best out of it. Sometimes you're too heeled and you try and flatten the boat. Then suddenly you're dead flat again because of the swell. So it takes a sort of in-between and a balancing act. Initially I found it difficult but I'm getting the hang of it now," he said.

Mansfield, the Irish sailor of the year in 1999, is a big fan of the Star and keen that it remains part of the Olympics in four year's time. The question for him and O'Brien is, can they repeat their world championship form over the next two weeks in a fleet replete with former medallists and world champions?

"I think there are eight to ten people here with any medal within their grasp, and I put ourselves within that category." he said.