Olympic bronze medallist 49er sailors Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks have left the borough to take on the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal.

The pair are strongly placed to be selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympics for a second time running.

Draper, 29, of Crossways and Hiscocks, 34, of Fortuneswell, Portland have been sailing together since 2002.

In recent events, they won gold at the French Olympic Sailing Week, in Hyeres in April, but their last regatta in Breitling, Holland at the end of May was not so successful.

Double Olympic medallist Hiscocks said: "Holland didn't go very well for us. We finished 20th but by that time the end result was pretty immaterial. We've never finished that low in any regatta in our lives before. We went in a bit of a daze and came out of it in a daze, and we still think was that really us - did we really compete?'"

The world championships started yesterday (Thursday June 28), and the 49er sailors are confident about getting back to their usual standard.

Hiscocks said: "To be honest we're not all that concerned. A few things we didn't do very well in preparation for Holland, we wouldn't consider being in that situation in the worlds - testing kit we weren't happy with, and we started too early and were disqualified from two races.

"All these things are controllable and something we need to make sure we don't do.

"We've been doing work on our start times and generally improving. We almost got blasé and we have been very good about not doing that in the past."

The 49er is one of the most exhilarating of all of the Olympic classes, providing exciting racing over short courses. With a huge sail area, twin trapezes and an ultra light hull it can reach speeds of 30 knots.

The boat is 4.995m-long - inspiring the name, and requires crew to have a high level of agility and athleticism, as they must make rapid and often acrobatic movements.

Australian architect Julian Bethwaite designed the two-person, one-design skiff in 1995 and the 49er class made its debut at the 2000 Sydney Games where Hiscocks won silver sailing with Ian Barker, who is now a UK 49er coach.

In the 2004 Athens Games, Hiscocks enjoyed another podium finish with Draper when they achieved bronze.

Their biggest competition for the 2008 British Olympic squad selection is 49er team Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes.

Hiscocks said: "We're fairly confident but by no means is it a foregone conclusion.

"If you speak to anyone who's involved they would say it's pretty difficult to call. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes have been pushing everyone in the world recently, they've established themselves as a good team and have been finishing in the top three at many events.

"It's down between the two of us and down to who performs in the next few months."

Hiscocks grew up in Surrey and began sailing aged 14 in a Mirror dinghy. He moved to Portland in 2001, because he was spending all his time travelling to the borough.

He said: "It's been my main base down here since 1998 because there's good waters, a lot of events and certainly since 2000 the sailing academy has been developing to what it is now. It's becoming the place to be for the sport of sailing.

"A lot of times we have training weeks at home and we leave a boat there ready to go."

After the world championships which finish on July 13, the pair will be racing at the pre-Olympics in Beijing in August and Weymouth's Sail for Gold regatta in September.

Hiscocks said he would never switch to another boat because having a high level of experience benefits the Olympic classes and it would be a hard thing to throw away and start again.

He said: "It's nice sailing full stop. Out on the water in the fresh air, it's good fun and exciting.

"Racing itself much like any competition is very technical, it stretches your mind as well as well as being a physical contest.

"It tests you in a lot of different ways. There's a massive amount of variables, and it's the challenge of figuring out how to control the ones you can.

"You can either second guess the wind or limit your losses, it's always a case of having to weigh up risk and potential reward - kind of a game of chess on the water."