When the Irish sailing squad arrives home tomorrow evening it will be the end of a three-year effort to raise Ireland's performance at the Olympics - but the returnees face searching questions instead.
David Burrows's ninth overall in the Finn fleet, the best Irish performance since 1980, will provide some comfort to the Irish Sailing Association, but the overall prevent expectations failed to materialise.
Two firsts for Burrows will be memorable for at least demonstrating his clear potential at Olympic level. Only Britain's Iain Percy bettered this record with three wins in the 11-race series before going on to take the gold medal.
The points margin between ninth and sixth places was also close and Burrows remained a medal contender going into the final day of racing on Saturday.
That final day brought more bad luck for Mark Mansfield and David O'Brien in the Star keelboat. With just a single race offering the pair a chance to better their 14th overall in the 16-boat class, the Irish crew was one of five premature starters (OCS) in the final and the second discard switched to cover that disqualification with their overall place unchanged.
The Star fleet actually produced one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic sailing history. World champions and gold medal favourites Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl of the United States opened their series seemingly off form and far from contention. However, as the regatta progressed, their form returned with astonishing results.
With just five races to go, the pair began scoring first and second places and rose rapidly from 10th overall, at that time just two places ahead of the Irish boat, to challenge Brazillian Torben Grael for a medal on the final day.
In the final twist of good fortune for the pair, Grael was OCS in race 11 and dropped to third giving Reynolds and Liljedahl the gold. Ian Walker and Mark Covell added a second silver medal to Britain's haul of five sailing medals from Sydney.
Ireland's third boat, Maria Coleman in the single-handed Europe finished her event on Friday with a disappointing 12th place. In spite of this, the Baltimore sailor is upbeat as she looks ahead. Of the three, she is the only sailor to commit to continuing her campaign while the other two crews will be considering their options over the coming weeks.
Coleman plans to return to Ireland for a break and some windsurfing during the winter months. She will be competing in the women's Match Racing Championship in the United States in November and will probably return to Denmark to resume her Europe class training.
With a good relationship already established with her mast manufacturer, to Coleman this seems like the obvious path forward.
