Race on to find the new stars of the sea

Sailing:There's a queue forming for the chance to represent Ireland in the men's keelboat class at the Olympics.

Slow, lumbering and short on thrills, the Star is the heavyweight of the Olympic regatta. It has taken 20 years to produce an Irish fleet but each of the three campaigns now running for China deserve support because no other Olympic class more accurately reflects Irish sailing. In fact, 70 per cent of sailing here takes place in keelboats.

But these greenhorn teams face a far bigger obstacle than each other if they are to be on the Beijing route in six months' time and continue an unbroken run of Irish representation since 1992.

Mark Mansfield raced at four Olympic regattas in the class, a boat he made his own, but his best result was in his first in Barcelona when he finished 11th.

Now that he has hung up his Olympic boots, the next generation are aiming to be the first to make it into the top 10. But at an estimated €250,000 per campaign it is proving an expensive uphill journey. Unlikely as it may seem, a pairing of 22-year-old dinghy rookies who had Weymouth 2012 as a target are now also considered to be in the running for 2008.

But first Ireland needs to have a place on the Olympic start line. The attempt to secure it was missed at the World Championships last September when 75 per cent of the Olympic fleet was picked. Now the focus is on April where up to eight countries, including Ireland, are pinning their hopes on securing one of four remaining places at this year's World Championships in Florida when the 17-boat Olympic fleet will be complete.

There are good reasons to think Ireland will get a place because of some fine individual performances, but worryingly enough at this year's only indicator event so far - January's Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (MOCR) - Ireland finished at the back of the countries in the hunt.

In Miami, on the same waters where the World Championships are scheduled, Royal Cork's Peter O'Leary (22) and Royal North's Peter Milne (22) were race winners in MOCR opening eyes with the pace of their progress in just a few short months to finish 17th. They are sailing a hand-me-down hull from British medallist Ian Percy, also their training partner.

It is this kind of result that cast the former Laser sailors as contenders between the two other pairings of Maurice O'Connell and Ben Cooke, and Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks.

Dún Laoghaire's Treacy and Shanks showed good early season form last year by placing fourth in the spring European Championships, a result that proves their worth. The Star has had an Olympic presence since 1932 and with this level of Irish interest Ireland will build on Mansfield's pioneering efforts.