SKANDIA Team GBR is the British Sailing Team in the Olympic and Paralympic classes.

Around 70 sailors make up the Performance, Development and Transitional squads, which train and compete across 10 Olympic Classes and three Paralympic classes.

In this Dorset Echo column, Skandia Team GBR members are bringing insight into the campaign for glory.

Here’s Weymouth’s Saskia Clark, Team Volvo for Life member, who sails a 470 dinghy with Hannah Mills.

WE were a weary bunch of sailors on the Easyjet flight bound for Gatwick last week.

We finished our final training camp in Palma with a mix of weather, from sitting in the boat conditions and light sea breezes through to some windy offshore stuff on our final day.

It has been perfect to transition through all our set up as the week has gone on, so we returned home feeling more confident about our equipment and set up and more importantly how we are using it.

In Palma we sailed from the east side of Palma Bay, S’Arenal, which is the winter training base for a number of nations, particularly the northern Europeans.

Last week the local club ran a regatta for all those that have been based there.

We continued training with our squad instead of racing but did join in a few races to line up against some of the fleet and check we are heading in the right direction with our training, which results and speed in the races would suggest we are.

We have had a great set-up the last few months with our GB squad of four boats, which has allowed us to test and retest, sharing all the information and not having to compromise on the direction we are going in.

Our training partners are great, it is long hours on the water without the goal of an Olympics in four months’ time for them, so we really appreciate their concentration and commitment to our plans.

We have a week at home before heading back out to Majorca and into our pre-regatta prep before the racing starts on April 2.

After two months of good training we are really looking forward to some racing.

I feel as though we have made some good improvements since Perth and so we are excited about lining up in what will be a top quality fleet.

I had the joy of a fitness test on Thursday, and although it was pain it was great to see the programme that I’ve been working on the last six weeks is moving forward.

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