POOLE sisters, Lucy and Nicky Macgregor, arrived home from Australia last weekend with silver medals from the 420 World Championships at the Sail Melbourne International Regatta.

The Poole Yacht Club girls, part of the 92-strong elite field who contested the event, produced a superb set of consistent results and were only beaten by the home team and reigning ISAF World Champions, Elise Rechichi and her crew Tessa Parkinson.

There had been a good deal of hype leading up to the Melbourne 2004 Worlds, following the 2003 Hayling Island-hosted event, and the year saw a whirl of qualifying events for squad and team places.

Hannah Mills of Optimist fame and Lymington's Pippa Wilson from Cadets and 29ers also threw their hats into the ring.

Eventually November came and the despatch of two team containers, seven ladies' boats, seven men's and two coach RIBs and by the end of December the team were making their way 'Down Under'.

Unfortunately illness forced out Pippa Wilson so her crew Harriet Trumble joined forces with the 2003 second-placed Charlotte Savage. Other fancied competitors included Lymington's Alison Martin and Bethan Carden, who had excelled at the ISAF Worlds, getting the Bronze medal in Madeira.

Nicky and Lucy, now supported by GUL, finished eigth at the 2003 World event.

"Lucy had her sights on a top three place, but this time the competition was greater so I thought a top 10 place was more realistic," Nicky told me.

Martin and Carden held pole position for the early days recording 2-1-5-9 and Charlotte and Harriet's 3-5-5 only spoilt by a disqualification in race three, whilst Nicky and Lucy scored 9-11-2-7 giving a strong British presence at the top of the field.

The fifth race saw 16 boats black flagged, including four British teams, and it was little consolation that the Macgregors finished first on the water in this race.

These races were held in force 2-4 breezes and 25 degree temperatures.

This all changed on the Wednesday and Thursday with gales and rain cancelling the racing.

Friday dawned with a 25 knot breeze and a huge swell piling into the harbour causing the boats to 'take off' as they made their way out to the race area in Port Philip Bay.

Race six and seven on Friday kept the Savage-Trumble and Martin-Carden teams near the top and Joanne Macdonald and Laurie Marsden from the Clyde joined the Macgregors in the top 10.

Saturday was doom day for Ali and Bethan with another black flag using up their second discard which meant they had to count a 29th in race nine.

By now, Rechichi and Parkinson, had recorded four firsts and looked comfortable for gold again.

Two seconds pulled up the Poole duo with France's Camille Lecointre and Gwendolyn Lemaitre, the ISAF silver medallists still strong, and Italians Maria Stella Turizio and Maria Carolina Renda getting first, fifth and eighth.

The final day, Sunday, started with the Aussies Elise and Tessa looking good in first and the Macgregors in second but with only a handful of points separating second down to seventh.

British hearts took a leap as the leaders slipped from first to ninth in the penultimate race and Lucy and Nicky climbed to second.

But it was nail-biting for British supporters in the final race when the Macgregors went to the right up the first beat, lost heaps but plugged away to finish seventh and secure the silver medal with two points to spare.

Lucy told the Daily Echo: "I will never forget the feeling as we crossed the line at the end of the last race and saw our coach Mark Rushall with a triumphant fist in the air, it was only then that we realised that we had won silver."

Savage and Trumble came second in the last race to get fourth overall behind the French and ahead of the Italians.

Other Brits were Martin and Carden in eighth, Macdonald-Marsden 12th, Jo Brigg and Jane Turner 15th, Rachael Wigmore and Mary Rook 16th and Hannah Mills with Peggy Webster in 23rd.

At a reception, held at their proud home club, Commodore Pete Hopper said: "I just want to congratulate Nicky and Lucy on behalf of Poole Yacht Club.

"Whatever I say - 'Congratulations!', or 'Well done!' - doesn't really cover it. This is such a fantastic achievement, many many congratulations to you both."

He also passed on congratulations from Tom Lock, Parkstone YC Commodore.

Poole's Mayor and Admiral of the Port, Councillor Ray Smith, praised their "outstanding performance" to achieve silver.

"They have provided a great fillip for the town and Borough of Poole, and it is these achievements that place Poole very much on the international arena.

The whole of the Borough are very proud and impressed with their outstanding achievement," he added.

Both girls started their sailing at an early age. cruising and racing with their parents, before going through the Poole YC junior sailing programme, then racing together in Mirror Dinghies and were part of national squad.

Nicola, 19, a former Bournemouth School for Girls pupil is now a Biomedical Sciences student at Queen Mary, University of London.

She has joined the sailing section and is looking forward to competing in inter-university team racing, and also intends to pursue her love of keel boat racing.

Lucy, 17, who attends Bournemouth School for Girls, has another year in youth sailing in the 420s and has already started training with Nerissa Booth as crew.

Lucy and 'Niss' will be competing against very strong competition to try to gain selection for GB squad in the ISAF World Youth Championships in Poland this Summer.

Match racing and keel boat racing are also on the agenda.

Kate, the third and youngest Macgregor daughter at just 13, is a member of the RYA South Zone Mirror Squad and is trying to get into the National Squad.

"The Girls have been very dedicated to their training and fitness, we are very proud of them!" said mum Chrissy.

A bonus came in the form of the return to host Mornington Yacht Club of Scandia Wild Thing, the line honours winner of the Sydney Hobart race, having been designed, built and sailed by members of the club.