RESTRICTIONS on public sailing, the establishment of a British training camp at Castle Cove and training bases for foreign teams are among the subject of discussion as local clubs begin their preparation for the Olympics.

Yacht Clubs of Weymouth, the forum for sailing clubs in the borough, has had preliminary discussions with the RYA and Olympic organising groups about the practical steps that need to be taken in the run up to 2012.

They have been discussing the implications for local racing with key warm up events scheduled to take place in 2010 and 2011, with the latter potentially bringing twice as many boats and sailors as the actual Olympics.

David Dunn, Yacht Clubs of Weymouth championship committee chairman, said security measures for the games could see restricted access to certain waters and added: "It is highly likely that we won't have total access to the bay. Once the racing areas are set up there's going to be quite a lot of security."

He said the RYA was in ongoing discussions with Castle Cove sailing club about setting up a training camp for British sailors, which would involve new equipment being set up on the site.

"At the moment the British Olympic team is looking for somewhere to do some practising because the academy will be closed down in the run up to the Games," he said.

The club would also be investigating the impact on members as part of the talks.

Castle Cove secretary Diana Gill said that preparatory work was under way and that local clubs anticipated further interest from international teams wishing to establish sailing bases following the conclusion of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Mrs Gill said: "It's all inching forward.

"The networks are being established but it's early days."

She added that one of the main concerns of the yacht clubs was access to racing areas and facilities for members in the run up to the Games.

Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy director John Tweed said that the experience of previous Olympics meant that security measures would need to be in place to protect athletes on the water but nothing was finalised.

He said that details of such arrangements would be developed by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog).

A spokesman for Locog said it was too early to discuss exact arrangements for restricting access but said that it was unlikely to differ from previous large tournaments held at the academy.