Lothians sailors, Peter Irwin and David Kohler, who were possibly the greenest crew in last year's Junior World Championships in Auckland having just months before teamed up to race a double-handed 420 boat, will return to this year's Junior Worlds, to be staged Athens on the 2004 Olympics course in July.
It was a drastic learning curve and as a result we changed a lot of things, remembers David, from Balerno, who turns 18 this Friday.
It was only the top guys there so the standard in the fleet was really high and it was our first major event. In New Zealand the pair finished a respectable 56th, out of 80, not bad at all for a first attempt. With another year's experience accrued, and confidence riding high, they intend to finish considerably higher second time around.
Britain is amazing at sailing at the moment so we are quite confident in our skill level, said David. A top 10 place would be what we are aiming for.
In the last year we have become a more experienced team and we are getting consistency in the races especially in the longer championships. One of our main strengths is getting the results when we need to.
To prove the point they succeeded in the two Worlds qualifications events - in the Solent and in a lake in Wales in April and May - despite gear breakages and rule infringements.
We had a lot of work to do, admits David. David and Peter, from Linlithgow, are members of the UK National (GBR) Youth Sailing squad and are supported at home by the East of Scotland Institute of Sport. Both organisations are working together to ensure the two 17 year olds arrive in Athens in the peak of form
The Strength & Conditioning training ESIS provides has really helped our physical preparation, said David.
The physio is key and I get acupuncture to make sure I'm loose and flexible in the boat so I can move around efficiently.
The plan is to compete in as many events as possible before Athens. We have an event in Germany and we are looking to compete in either Belgium or France then once we arrive in Athens to do as much training at the venue as possible.