Since enjoying a successful World championship in July Peter and I have taken a well-deserved break from the 49er class.

However, while I say we have had a ‘break’, Peter and I have been keeping ourselves very busy competing in the Ishares Cup Sailing Series. Although we were competing in different boats, we were still sailing for the same team and overall it was success for us both, as we finished first and second overall.

On a more personal note, Peter got married in mid August and I had a great holiday in Ireland with my wife! So August has been a hectic but exciting time for us both!

Despite this our major focus remains at the moment, to begin preparations for the forthcoming major stepping stones in front of us. These need to be capitalised on in order to make our bid to race at the Olympics in 2012 a successful one.

The first of these stepping stones is the Sail for Gold Regatta. The Regatta is taking place in Weymouth, on the Olympic waters, and will provide us with a great opportunity to get a feel for and experience what it could be like to race there come London 2012. After the Sail for Gold Regatta, our focus will shift to the 2010 World championships in January in the Bahamas. Our training for this will start promptly after finishing the Sail for Gold Regatta, but obviously we do not want to look too far ahead at the moment and remain focussed on the more immediate matters at hand.

So, with Sail for Gold now just around the corner, we've spent a good deal of time assessing our previous performances and looking at what areas need improving. We believe that we only need to make small gains in order to start converting our early triumphs as a team to regatta wins. There are areas for us to improve on but we are confident that we can make these minor improvements that hopefully mean that the all important win is now not far off.

While we may be a little rusty going into the sail for Gold regatta we are really looking forward to an exciting second half of the year and the success it can bring.