Conceding she and her crew perhaps sacrificed winning for learning, Paula Lewin expressed overall satisfaction with her progress in the last month - despite finishing seventh for the second week in a row.

The Bermudian sailor, who competed in the Yngling in the US Olympic Sailing Pre-Trials over the weekend, noted that she and her crew (Peta Lewin and Carola Cooper) had been experimenting a bit and this may have cost them result-wise.

"Overall our performance was very inconsistent. That's partly due to things we've been trying to learn and in order to learn we disrupted our pattern trying different tactics.

"That kind of thing can lead to very up-and-down days but that's how you learn," said Lewin, also seventh in last week's Rolex Miami Olympic Class regatta.

While beaten for top honours in the Pre-Trials by the American trio of Hannah Swett, Jody Swanson and Betsy Allison respectively, the 31-year-old was pleased with other aspects of her recent training.

"The whole month was very good as far as getting the team to gel. We're still a very young team - we've only been together since last year - and this was our first time sailing day in, day out and living together.

"We made good strides in team-building and communication on the boat and that's important too."

Lewin finished the Pre-Trials with a fourth place in yesterday's only race while she was 14th, second and 16th in Saturday's three races.

She now heads to California and Spain for further competition and training before returning home in April.