Shirley can prove she's a class act

"After Sydney, I'd sort of done that. And you have to have the motivation and the energy. The Yngling was a completely new boat and whole new challenge," said Robertson. It also meant enlisting a crew for the threeperson boat, so Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb were recruited, and double Olympic medallist Ian Walker took on the duties of coach.

Yngling boats are substantial (they weigh in at over half a tonne) and don't come cheaply. The money for the Canadian-built boat that they will race in Athens came from 34 wellwishers, mostly from the Isle Of Wight (where Robertson lives) and Scotland (where she was raised). Each of 34 investors put in £1,000, and they now own the boat, or most of it.

"Nobody knew how to sail the Yngling, and every day has been a really steep learning experience. We've learned together," said Robertson.

Like the winds of the Aegean, the results of Team Robertson have blown hot and cold. They have been as likely to win races, as to drop outside the top 20, and both sides of their sailing were evident at this year's world championships. Ainslie, on the other hand, found his new boat fitted like a glove.

As with Robertson, he echoed the "need for a new challenge", but so swiftly did Ainslie rise to the top of the Finn Class - he was world champion in 2002 and 2003 - that it hardly seemed a challenge at all.

Until January, that is, when Ainslie went down with glandular fever.

For the next two months, when he was sailing he was sailing tired.

"Some days you feel good, some days you feel awful," he said. Yet, in spite of the exhaustion, he still managed to win a third successive world title in Rio de Janeiro in February to establish himself as the rock-solid favourite for Athens.

Sailors, though, are like alcoholics; they don't like a week off, and Ainslie was still low enough in April to miss the pre-Olympic regatta at Hyeres in France.

For the last two months, though, everything has gone well. "There has been no recurrence, and I've been really happy," he said.

Percy and Mitchell have not yet managed Ainslie's dominance, but they did wrap up one Star world title, in their first year in the boat in 2002, and it was the first British victory in a Star world championship for 84 years.

Percy's strength is his self-belief, which falls just short of arrogance. It makes even the opposition believe that he can't be beaten. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility, that Percy and Mitchell could win. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that all three boats could win.

For the British sailing team, it would be wonderful if they did. For Robertson, Percy and Ainslie, it would simply signal that it was time for the next challenge. Ainslie has already pre-empted that post-Olympic period of uncertainty; he has signed up for the New Zealand Americas Cup team. Another year, another challenge.