Robertson returning home en route to Beijing

DOUBLE Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson will make her first competitive appearance north of the Border since her Athens triumph when she helms the Farr 45 yacht, Volvo RYA Keelboat Sailing, in the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series, starting at Oban on Thursday.

Robertson, who will turn 37 this year and says that her greatest weakness in sailing is not being able to stop, confirmed to Scotland on Sunday that she intends to compete in China in three years' time in search of an Olympic hat-trick.

"As long as I am competitive, it would be worth a decent bet that I'll be in Beijing," she said, "but what class I'll be in remains to be decided.

"I remain committed to the Olympics in 2008. Olympic sailing has been my life for 16 years and remains very addictive. I have, however, always attributed much of my success to the importance of retaining balance in my life, and intend to spend more time with my husband, friends and family in 2005."

Dundee-born Robertson is taking this year away from Olympic sailing, having parted company with her Athens gold-medal team-mates, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb, to learn the ropes on bigger keelboats, but she is still within the Team Volvo for Life set-up that has been the basis for her success over two Olympics.

"Campaigning a larger keelboat will give me the chance to sail with and against the world's top professional and amateur sailors, giving me the chance to learn new skills that I will take forward to Beijing. I have sought new challenges throughout my career, and helming the 45ft Farr with her crew of 12 will give me a whole new range of skill sets."

Robertson has been sailing the yacht on the Solent off her adopted home, the Isle of Wight, and is struck by the contrast in scale from the single-handed Europe dinghy and the three-woman Yngling in which she, Ayton and Webb claimed Great Britain's first gold of last year's Olympics, seen by many as giving a kick-start to a faltering British campaign.

"Big-boat sailing is the difference between night and day, and there is so much that you have to delegate, so many more things over which you have less control, but it is fantastic experience, and I am looking forward to the Scottish Series, which I have never competed in."

Taking the opportunity of gaining an insight into the Robertson style is a rising RYA Scotland keelboat competitor, 19-year-old Scott Aikman from Largs, who is a student of business studies at Strathclyde University.

"It's a fantastic chance to sail in my specialist keelboat class and to gain experience and knowledge from Scotland's best-ever sailor," he said. "I am looking forward to it."

Aikman, a member of the Volvo Keelboat Squad, stressed that he needs to travel to the south coast of England to develop his career. "Scots are at a massive disadvantage if they want to progress to become a full-time keelboat sailor, and you really have to be on the Solent to get the same opportunities as everyone else."

Inevitably, Robertson will be racing to win this week.

"I've always missed the Scottish Series, because it clashes with the important Spa Regatta in the Netherlands, but I'm looking forward to the racing - it's a very competitive race this year - but I'm also planning to enjoy the social side of things, too.

"I last sailed off the west coast in my dinghy many years ago, so there is some sentimental value, too."

There will be no sentiment when it comes to family - Robertson's husband, the Irish sailor Jamie Boag, will be tactician on board Marten 49 Team Straun, which belongs to Hong Kong-based Scot David Cullen, and she declared: "Jamie is by far the more experienced of the two of us on big boats - and neither of us will be asking or giving any quarter."

Meanwhile, many observers attribute this year's 95% increase in sportscotland's funding to RYA Scotland - to 470,000 - to the irresistible case created by Robertson's achievements.

She will have turned 40 by the time the Beijing Olympics come round, but she sees that as no impediment to striving for a record third successive sailing gold. That would provide a unique achievement - and further magnificent inspiration to others.