SAILING: Would-be Olympians from Essex have made impressive starts to their British team selection campaigns at the world’s first true international regatta of 2011, writes Frazer Clark.

The duo are members of Britain’s Olympic sailing squad and are competing in Miami in the second leg of the International Sailing Federation’s world cup series – the Rolex Miami Olympic classes regatta - which runs until Saturday.

A total of 36 Team GBR sailors are compete across 12 of the 13 events on the beautiful blue waters of Biscayne Bay.

The racers include Thorpe Bay YC member Paul Asquith who is crewing in the asymmetric 49er class alongside former Hyde Sails sailmaker Paul Brotherton, and women’s 470 class crew Katrina Hughes, 21, from Leigh-on-Sea SC.

Katrina’s helmsman is Penny Clark and after four races the duo were standing in third place behind the two leading French boats.

Brotherton and Asquith are also in third slot in their class – after six races – but the local men have one big problem as far as selection is concerned.

The two crews above them in the rankings are both British and this puts added pressure on Asquith as Britain’s Royal Yachting Association selectors will be using this regatta and a handful of other major world events in the spring and summer to chose the sole 49er duo to go to the 2012 Olympic sailing event which will be held off Weymouth.

Speaking to the Echo at the start of the regatta, Katrina Hughes was in a a positive frame of mind about the duo’s changes of making it big in Miami.

The former Westcliff High School for Girls pupil said: “The boat is great. It’s only a few months old, so we’ve been busy setting it up over the winter.

“But we’re finally here with it and it’s brilliant to have it all set up so we can have complete confidence in it.

“The conditions out here are interesting. Unfortunately there’s not as much sun as we would like and too much rain!

“The Bay where we are racing is very flat and a little tricky, dependent upon the wind direction. But Penny and I are adjusting well.”

Sailors in the Miami regatta include Britain’s triple gold medal winning singlehanded sailor Ben Ainslie, plus a host of world champions from the USA, Canada, Italy, Spain, Australia, Holland and Germany.