THE transition from the Three Blondes in a Boat who won gold in the Athens Games to the Yngling Girls in Qingdao would appear from the outside to be seamless and harmonious.

There has only been one change in personnel and both boats have been world-beaters, but getting another British Yngling boat to the top of the class has been not merely a matter of labour, but also trouble and strife.

In Athens and its aftermath, Three Ferrets in a Bag might have been more appropriate than Three Blondes in a Boat for the smiles on the podium and the post-Games balls masked an underlying fractiousness. The chief cause was that two of the three, Shirley Robertson and Sarah Ayton, are both extremely strong-minded. Neither likes to be subordinate. Robertson was already a gold medal-winner from the Sydney Games but Ayton is also a brilliant sailor and became increasingly assertive in calling tactics through their Athens campaign. She still felt she was crewing for Robertson, however, rather than sailing with her. And Sarah Webb, the third blonde, agreed.

When Robertson decided to take time out after the Athens Games, to sail a bit in bigger boats and start a family, Ayton and Webb decided to begin their own Olympic project, with Robertson not invited.

Without sponsorship, though, such a project is just a pipedream. As gold medallists, Ayton and Webb were eligible for World Class Funding from the national lottery, which would be sufficient for their own needs but nowhere near enough to mount a serious Olympic campaign, requiring at least two boats, extensive travel to train and compete and a programme of sail and spar development. In the summer of 2005, when they were close to giving up, they went to Cowes week, hoisted their boat on a crane in a dock and hung a banner on it, “Sponsor us to Beijing”. It was spotted by a passing sports agent who signed up the Sarahs and found them sponsorship from a Swiss financial firm, Mirabaud.

In the boat, Ayton, the tough one and the leader, moved to helm, a natural progression. “Being the best at what I can do is what drives me,” Ayton said. “To win a gold medal as bowman was job done for me. I wanted a new challenge.”

Webb, utterly reliable and a full partner in the project, remained in the middle position in the boat. They needed a replacement in the bow berth and the way they set about selecting one proved just how determined and ruthless they were prepared to be.

The first to be tried out was Annie Lush, a sailor with a fine record in international racing. She didn’t last long. “Winning a medal is hard enough without having battles within your team, so I let Annie go,” Ayton said. The next serious contender was Victoria Rawlinson, another sailor of note. She stayed for a while and crewed with the two Sarahs in the 2006 world championships, where they finished fourth, having looked likely to win. Rawlinson, too, was soon on her way out.

Finally, in November 2006, Pippa Wilson was invited and chosen. From the beginning, it worked, technically and temperamentally. Wilson is a considerable sailor in her own right and may well graduate to helming herself in an Olympic class. Meanwhile, however, the discards were mounting their own campaigns. Robertson, the double gold medallist, having given birth to twins, returned to the Yngling class and recruited Lush. Rawlinson, along with her sister, later formed a third Yngling boat with Olympic aspirations.

With only one boat per nation permitted in Olympic sailing, the battle for selection was intense, to say the least, with a whiff of revenge as motivation. Robertson, as the most successful British Olympic woman sailor of all time, was intent on a third gold medal and on proving that the two Sarahs were not the same force without her guiding hand. She had procured her own sponsorship and made clear her position: that if the selectors wanted to ensure another Yngling gold medal, they should back her proven record.

For the two Sarahs, everything was on the line. If they lost out, they would have wasted two years. If they made the selection, they had the chance of complete vindication. The showdown took place in the 2007 world championships in Cascais, Portugal. The conditions were very windy, which was thought to suit Robertson. Over the previous year, she had devoted most energy and resources to boat development, while Ayton, Webb and Wilson had concentrated on perfecting their racing technique. That seemed to have paid off for they dominated the regatta until the final, medal race. With Robertson and her crew in second place, any slip-up could have been disastrous.

They almost came to grief. Rounding the mark at the top of the course, Wilson missed her toe-strap and fell out of the boat. Immediately, Sarah Webb grabbed Wilson’s wrist and Wilson managed to pull herself back on board. Ayton calmly steered round the mark and a few seconds later Webb and Wilson executed a perfect sail-hoist. Teamwork, their watchword, had saved the day. Ayton and her crew won the gold medal; Robertson the bronze.

When Ayton, Webb and Wilson were selected to represent Britain in the Yngling class in the Beijing Games, Robertson was publicly displeased. She sold her boat to the American team and argued that she should have been given more time and opportunity to prove her crew’s potential. There was, however, no arguing against the record of Ayton, Webb and Wilson. Since they formed their crew, they have won two world championships and one European and have been on the podium at every major regatta in which they have competed. In Qindao, they have been controlled and conservative, sailing within their limits and working together as a perfect team.

Theirs is the vindication. But the price in comradeship has been high. These days, Robertson and the two Sarahs are barely on speaking terms. No reunions of the Athens gold-winning crew are planned or expected.