The British crews in action were selected from the June Skandia Sail for Gold World Cup Regatta, and in all will compete alongside 440 sailors, representing 66 nations, in the hope to return to Weymouth next year.

"This really is a true trial of what it's going to be like in the summer of 2012, and to that end it will be very exciting from a competitive perspective," explained Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Olympic manager Stephen Park.

"There will be a lot of learning opportunities from both Skandia Team Britain's perspective and from the organisational side.

"But it also means that the fleet sizes are smaller, and the total number of sailors is smaller.

"We've got just over 400 sailors here at this event by comparison to the 1,000 plus who were here for Skandia Sail for Gold, but still the same number of nations, still the same number of classes.

"We're in for a different but more intense competition I think."

Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor (pictured) will have the chance to get the competition off to a fast start for Team GB on the first day of the competition in the women's match racers contest.

"We're looking forward to it a lot - we've been training quite hard for this and it's going to be really good," said helm Lucy.

"It's a bit of a milestone, sailing in the Olympic boats for the first time and it makes you realise how quickly it's all coming around.

"It's a little bit scary, but the boats are in good condition - there are a few things that need changing, but we could have guessed that a few months ago.

"I think it might take a few days to get into it but they'll be good to go in a few days' time.

"It's a year to go, it's the test event, it's all pretty exciting and it's all starting to come together and starting to feel very real.

"It's scary to think there's a year to go definitely - or under a year now - but it's also really exciting and it does motivate you that bit more to get out of bed and make a difference each day to your campaign."


London 2012 trialling the proposed racecourses for next year - which closer to the shore than ever before – to ensure a good show will be put on next year for the sold-out ticketed spectator event at the Nothe.

They will also be testing GPS tracking, having the big Omega clocks on top of all the start boats and OFCOM checking all the radio waves.

After two days of intense women's match racing in a round robin format, the RS:X men's and women's windsurfing will begin, followed by the 470, Laser, Finn, Star and 49er events.

Medal races will take place from August 11 to 13.

It will provide organisers with the opportunity to fine tune preparations for London 2012 with systems and equipment being tested.

Weymouth's Nothe Gardens was confirmed as the official spectator area for the Games this week, and with this and next year's Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta the last opportunity to test their skills at the Olympic venue, Park is hopeful of the British team putting on a positive show this week.

"It would certainly be great for confidence if we were able to be in the medal zone in all of our events, at either this event or at next year's Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta," he said.

"We had a great Sail for Gold Regatta earlier on this year, the team did well and we were certainly in the medal zone in most classes.

"If we can come away from this event with ideally maybe four medals then we'll be pleased that we're on track, and hopefully in the other six events we should be fighting in and around the medal zone with top six or top seven results in those other classes as well.

"Then at least we'll know we're going to be in the right part of the fleet in 12 months' time.

"There's quite a lot of pressure on the sport to provide a show for all the spectators to see every day come 2012 and the result of that is there's going to be far more racing close to the shore than traditionally we would see here in Weymouth or indeed at any other previous Olympic Games.

"We're quite excited by those opportunities and it should make for great racing."

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