VETERAN Olympic Star class sailor Peter Bromby and crew Bill McNiven will try to be the first Bermudians to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing when they compete in the World Championships next week in Portugal.Bromby is aiming to compete in his fifth consecutive Olympic Games having experienced coming ever so close to a medal in Sydney in 2000 when he finished fourth. In 2004 equipment breakdown at the beginning of the regatta off the coast of Greece put a serious damper on his challenge for a medal even though he came back strong in the second half of the regatta and won one of the races.

Bromby and McNiven have been in Europe for a couple of weeks having picked their boat up in Holland. They raced in a regatta there and then travelled to Kiel, Germany for the Keil Race Week where many of the sailors at the Worlds also tuned up.

The World Championships are being staged in Cascais, Portugal and there will be over 1,500 sailors from 76 nations competing in the Star, Tornado, 49er, RS:X, 470 Laser and Laser Radial, Finn and Yngling — all Olympic classes.

However after arriving in Portugal earlier this week Bromby, like many other sailors, found that his luggage was missing. “A number of us are in the same boat,” said Bromby. “About a third of the people at the event have lost their bags no matter where in the world they were flying from.”

However what is more of a concern to him is the strong winds off Cascais.

Bromby and McNiven favour medium winds but he said they expect it to be a fairly strong coupled with some wave action.

Bromby said: “It blows a dog off the chain every day here. We like moderate winds and this is a bit stronger — big waves and big wind. It is not really what we are used to in the Great Sound — especially with the waves. It is going to be a struggle to be quite honest.”

Afonso Domingos of the host Portugal Star team agreed and said conditions were not easy. However he added: “The advantage of knowing the regatta courses is less than usual. Everyone has done a lot of training here in Cascais.”

The forecast indicates the sailors — of which there are nearly 100 in the Star class — will face a northerly wind blowing between 16 to 20 knots.

Bromby and McNiven picked their new Star boat up in Holland. “Basically the charter fee it that we have to take it back to the US (after the Worlds). We raced it in a regatta in Holland and Kiel to test it out — we didn’t want to come straight into the Worlds without spending some time in it. We have had a few issues but we are getting them sorted out,” said Bromby who added that his former partner Martin Siese is also in Portugal this week to help the duo.“Martin is here with us. He is only here until the weekend and he is helping us get up to speed. We will be testing the boat out on the course this week before the racing starts next week,” added Bromby.

Siese and Lee White both sailed with Bromby for a number of years during Olympic campaigns.

When the actualy racing starts next week Bromby will be going for one of the 11 Olympic spots up for grabs in the Star class.

“There are 11 spots here and then another four next year in April at the 2008 Worlds in Miami,” he said. But the Bermudian team would much prefer to wrap up their Olympic spot now and relieve the pressure on themselves.

Approximately 75 percent of the 2008 Olympic spots in each sailing class will be awarded at the Worlds in Portugal next week in all the classes with the remaining 25 percent being awarded to the top finishers at the 2008 World Championships for each class.

After the 2004 Olympics Bromby took a year and a half off from competing in international Star competitions so he could spend more time with his wife and baby and also concentrate more on his trucking business.

The veteran then hooked up with McNiven last summer and they have been forging a sailing relationship since. Earlier this year Bromby, for the second time, was awarded an IOC Olympic Solidarity Scholarship to help with the funding for the 2008 campaign.

He counts multiple top ten World Championship finishes on his sailing resume, as well as two titles at the Bacardi Cup, one of the most prestigious regattas on the Star calendar.

Bromby’s first Olympic Games was in Barcelona in 1992 where he placed 19th and then in Atlanta four years later he placed 13th.

Before the 2004 Games Bromby and White were one of the favourites especially with victories at both the SPA Regatta and Kiel Week. Going into Athens Bromby was the third-ranked sailor in the world in the Star class. Then came the severe equipment breakdown which dashed their hopes.

Bromby and McNiven started competing seriously late last with a top 10 finish at the Star North Americans. They then had a 16th overall at the Rolex regatta in Miami followed by a seventh at the Bacardi Cup also staged off the Miami coast.

At the Star Western Hemisphere Championship in Tampa Bay, Florida the Bermudians posted their best result to date, scoring two bullets on the way to second place behind Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom from Sweden.

“We are working hard to improve upon our team work and boat handling skills,” said Bromby on his new partnership with McNiven.