Less practice could be the key to an improved Olympic performance, according to sailor Peter Bromby who qualified for his third successive Games at the weekend.

The experienced skipper's theory is based on his experience four years ago when he put his life on hold to live near the Atlanta Olympics sailing venue for weeks and practise there incessantly.

But he did not gain as much from that substantial sacrifice as he had hoped and he intends to make lower key preparations for Sydney in September, when he will partner Lee White in the Star class event.

"I'm going into it with a different philosophy from last time round,'' said Bromby. "I stopped work and went to live in Savannah four years ago. I stayed there months, but at the end of the day I didn't feel I got much out of it.

"When the Olympics came round, sailing had become like a job instead of fun and that can be negative.

"Every Tom, Dick and Harry has got different ideas on the best way to prepare, but we'll do what we think is right.

"Both Lee and I are businessmen and we put in as much time as we can get away from our businesses. It's a juggling act. We are amateurs and we'll be competing against a very professional field.'' Bromby and White were disappointed with their 13th place finish in Atlanta, although that was an improvement on the Barcelona Games of 1992, when they finished 19th.

"My goal is to improve and to win a medal, but as long as I keep getting closer to a medal, I'll be happy,''said Bromby. "We just want to go there and sail the regatta of our lives.'' Bromby and White sealed their place in Sydney when they finished 16th overall in last week's Nautica Star World Championships at the Annapolis Yacht Club in Maryland.

"It was a tough regatta in very variable conditions,'' said Bromby.

"The wind not only kept changing direction, it also changed velocity more violently than I think I have ever seen.

"One minute it could be blowing at five or six miles per hour, the next it was up to 15.'' There were eight qualifying places up for grabs in the six-race series for countries not already assured of their Olympic place. And the Island duo never looked in danger of missing out, despite 49th and 42nd-place finishes in the fourth and fifth races respectively.

"Our goal was to get off to a good start and put the other countries under pressure and we got two good races in, a ninth, when we were running fourth for most of the race and a 20th, when we lost a few points through gambling,'' said Bromby.

"Then we decided to try and be a little more conservative, but in the third race we were between 70th and 80th at the windward mark -- and that was more conservative than we had in mind!'' They recovered to finish 26th and despite their mid-series hiccups, they finished off in style with a second place on Saturday to complete a 9-20-26-49-42-2 record.

"It was a nice way to finish,'' said Bromby. "We have won a race in a world championship before and we only fell about 15 boat-lengths short of winning that one. The encouraging thing was that we had been in the top 10 all the way round.'' Bromby said he and White will probably enter the Star North American Championships this summer and may travel to Australia to get in a week's training ahead of the Olympics.

Sara Lane Wright, the third member of Bermuda's Olympic sailing team, has been training with the Italian Olympic team in Europe.

Wright, who has already competed in regattas in Spain and France on her tour of Europe, spent five to seven hours a day for a week and a half with the Italians on picturesque Lake Garda in the country's Alpine north.

Over the weekend, she finished ninth out of a fleet of 38 in the Europe dinghy class at a two-day regatta in Termoli, Italy, where her best finish in the six races was second.

And her hectic schedule continued yesterday as she travelled to Holland to take part in the Spa regatta in Medemblik, which starts tomorrow.

Wright, who brought home a silver medal from the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg last year, was awarded a wild card entry to the Sydney Games.

OLYMPICS OLY