Coleman at the helm

Sydney Olympic veteran Maria Coleman leads the Irish charge at the annual Spa Eurolymp regatta at Medemblijk, Holland next week.

The four boats belie the size of the current potential squad for Athens 2004 with at least 15 campaigns active at this time.

But for the peak exam period, the potential attendance would swell to two dozen Irish sailors which is the expected turnout for Kiel Week in Germany in late June.

Meanwhile, for a post-Olympic season, team management is pleased with the early start to preparations.

"It's early days, but we have a good spread across the classes," said Garrett Connolly, the new team manager. "I'm particularly pleased with the non-experienced campaigners who are all fully committed with full or near full-time programmes."

The message of how tough Olympic sailing can be has been clearly demonstrated in recent years but, far from discouraging athletes, the number of crews is one of the largest ever.

A key indicator for Connolly is that the younger sailors have recognised that going full-time is needed sooner rather than later. Next week sees three other boats travelling to Holland with Coleman (Baltimore SC) who is continuing as the only Irish Europe single-hander declared to date.

Also competing will be Youen Jacob (Baltimore SC) and Aaron O'Grady (Royal St. George YC) - both in the Finn singlehander fleet. Max Treacy with Anthony Shanks (RstGYC) compete in the Star keelboat.

Later in June, when a bigger contingent goes into action at Kiel Week, the latter three boats will need all the experience they can get when the veteran incumbents for these two classes also return to the Olympic circuit.

Three times Star class Olympian Mark Mansfield (Royal Cork YC) sails with Killian Collins (RCYC) while two-times veteran David Burrows (Malahide YC) returns to the Finn.

However, it is not yet certain whether either of these two will commit to the three-year haul towards Athens. Ironically, it was Burrows who won a hard-fought selection trial for the Finn last year against John Driscoll and Colin Chapman.