Winning the Olympics before they start

By Anthony Reuben
Business reporter, BBC News, Falmouth, Cornwall

Home advantage is a big benefit in many sports and in sailing it is more important than most.

Falmouth is about 160 miles (258km) by road west of Weymouth

Tom Phipps is a member of the British development squad working towards the sailing events at the 2012 Olympics.

"I did a youth world's (International Sailing Federation under-18 world championships) a couple of years ago in Weymouth," he says.

"I've been sailing in Weymouth for a long time now and it was a tremendous benefit to me and my team-mate."

"We cleaned up just because we knew a lot of the nooks and crannies and wind bends and it is definitely a big advantage."

Next best thing

The 2012 Olympic events will also be held at Weymouth in Dorset and the teams competing will be keen to get experience sailing there in advance.

Tom Phipps' father Brian is trying to persuade sailing teams that Falmouth is the next best thing.

"The way that the winds work here, the way that the bay works the way that we've got this harbour area that's affected by sea breezes is very similar to Weymouth," he says.

"So someone who wants to have either an area where they can do their own training away from prying eyes or for whatever reason don't want to go to Weymouth - this would be their best second choice."

Hopefully we're going to see a lot of teams here during what is our quiet period Brian Phipps, Windsports

After the Beijing games this summer, the organising committee for London 2012, Locog, will issue a guide to pre-games training camps for participating nations.

Teams that want to practise in similar conditions to the ones in which they will be competing will be pointed towards approved locations.

"It is so that teams, especially from countries that are further away, can train in the conditions in which they will be competing at games time," a Locog spokesperson says.

Mylor Harbour, where Mr Phipps owns his sailing business, Windsports, is very keen to be included.

The big advantage of Olympic training camps for sailing is that they will take place in the winter.

"Most of the Olympic training happens in what is our off-season because in the season they are all doing their own regatta sailing," says Mr Phipps.

"For us it's potentially great because hopefully we're going to see a lot of teams here during what is our quiet period."

Technical training

Tom Phipps says that the winter training before the games will be crucial.

"Most of the teams will have been selected by then and they'll be looking to do as much technical training as possible," he says.

"They'll be looking at things like developing sails in slightly different shapes because hopefully they should have all the techniques and boat handling in place by then."

While there will not be any money available for training centres from Locog, Mr Phipps hopes that inclusion on the brochure will help Mylor Harbour to get local funding to expand its facilities.

Tom Phipps is in one of three teams in the development squad

"The opportunity that the Olympics gives us is to offer something to Olympic teams and leave a legacy we can use for the benefit of the community," he says.

He adds that bidding to be included in the brochure was not a particularly onerous process for him and the other business owners in the harbour.

"Having got together as a group we got the criteria and we started ticking the boxes and the ones that we couldn't tick we said 'what can we do to answer those questions'. It wasn't that difficult."

Locog, says that 750 venues expressed an interest in being in its training camps brochure and they should find out if they have been successful in late February or early March.

So while Brian Phipps is desperately hoping that his son can get on the Olympic team to be in with a chance of winning in four years, there's a chance his business could win much sooner than that.