PAULA Lewin is weighing up the pros and cons of mounting a fourth Olympic campaign as she recharges her batteries after her latest medal quest ended in disappointment.

The former world number one women's match racer is back on the island after she and her crew, twin sister Peta Lewin and Christine Patton, placed 15th out of 16 nations in the Yngling class in Athens.

Now Lewin intends to take some time out before she prepares for her next event, the King Edward VII Gold Cup, in Hamilton Harbour, starting on October 16.

Asked whether she aimed to represent Bermuda once more at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, 33-year-old Lewin said: "I have not made a decision yet and I haven't ruled it out. Right now I want to take a break and then I want to continue with my sailing career and do some match-racing."

Lewin and her crew earned fourth-place finishes in both the first and last races of the 11-race series at the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre. But they could not maintain that high standard for the races inbetween.

During the fifth and sixth races, winds were blowing between 18 and 30 knots and the Bermuda crew lost their spinnaker both times. Both times they were nearing the finish line when their sail capitulated.

Lewin said conditions had been testing at times and her team had been in contention during several races in which they finished badly.

But she conceded: "I feel we could have performed a lot better." Asked to respond to comments in the media that her decision to change her crew ? replacing Carola Cooper with Patton nine months ago ? had damaged her chances, Lewin said: "There were many more things involved ? I would rather not comment on that right now."

In the 2002 Yngling World Championship on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, with Cooper in her crew, Lewin placed fourth, a result which earned Olympic qualification. And she came seventh in the corresponding event last year in Rostock, Germany.

But this year, during the transitional period for the new crew, she was not so successful, finishing a disappointing 22nd in the World Championships in Santander, Spain.

Lewin arrived back on the island this week and said things were "still a bit of a whirlwind".

In Athens, Lewin was making her third Olympic appearance. She sailed solo in her two previous Olympic regattas, in the Europe dinghy class. In Barcelona in 1992, she finished 21st out of 24 countries and in Atlanta in 1996, she placed 14th out of 28. The Athens Games had compared well to her past experiences, she said.

"We performed well below our expectations, but it was a still a great experience and it was wonderful to be able to represent Bermuda," the skipper said.

"The facilities were great and it was more comfortable than in Savannah (Atlanta Games), because the harbour is a real harbour.

"The Greeks put on a fabulous show. We got to see a bit of beach volleyball and baseball and the venues were great."

Lewin has made more of an impact in match racing than fleet competition during her prestigious sailing career.

Four years ago, she was ranked the number one women's match racer in the world. Three times in succession, between 1997 and 1999, she won the Women's International Match Race Championships in Marblehead. And she enjoyed two other major international match racing triumphs in 1998, the Osprey Cup in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis, Maryland.

The five-time Bermuda Athlete of the Year will be looking for the fillip of repeat success in the King George VII Gold Cup. Last year, she earned a stunning, 3-0 victory over legendary Americas Cup winning skipper Dennis Conner in the first round before going out to Dane Jesper Radich in the quarter-finals.