accomplishments in 1999, which included winning the Bermuda National Match Race Championships.

But the achievement he most wants is to qualify for the Sydney Olympics later this year.

Barboza and his two-man crew of Nick Jones and Ray DeSilva will get their last chance to book a ticket Down Under when they leave this weekend for the World Soling Championships in Murcia, Spain.

Only two Olympic spots, plus one wild card, will be up for grabs among some 75 skippers and their crews, representing at least 20 countries.

The top eight nations at the end of the nine-race series (from April 2-9), who have not already qualified for the Olympics, will then compete in match racing between April 10-15 to decide the final places.

The trio leave on Saturday and, unlike previously, are giving themselves plenty of time to prepare before the regatta begins. Their boat is already in Spain and the three locals will quickly be in the water making necessary adjustments when they arrive.

"At the moment we have slipped down the world rankings a little because we've been inactive since the European Championships last year,'' said crew member Jones.

"We've been as high as 20th in the world as an individual team. We're sailing well, we have been in the boat now for almost two years so we are more used to it and of course Adam is a good match racer.

"If we can get into the match racing stage we feel we've got a good chance.

We're a team with good match racing experience.'' The trio have been just as active out of the water, working hard in the gym to increase their fitness. Jones, the ballast in the boat, has had to put on some additional weight to keep up with the competition.

"I've put on about 35 pounds in almost a year,'' he explained.

"You'd be surprised that in a sport in the Olympics you have to be big, fat and ugly.

"I'm small compared to guys from Russia and the Ukraine who are 6ft-7 and 300 pounds.'' Certainly the trio are sparing no expense in getting ready. "The boat is already there,'' said a delighted Jones. "We had it in Europe last year for the European Championships and it came back to Canada where the builder of the boat, Bill Abbott, was working on it.

"Whenever we've gone to any other championships, because of Adam's and Ray's work we've always just turned up the day before whereas other teams have been there weeks before.

"I can tell you the Americans have been there since the 16th of this month.

But we've decided to go out of pocket this time and sacrifice some time because we realise if our dream is to come true then this is how we have to do it. This is the first time we will have had decent preparation as far as having seven days to get the boat tuned and our tactics in sync with one another.'' The water on which the boats will be competing will have tricky tides and currents to contend with.

"It's much bigger than the Great Sound, something like 50 kilometres long and 30k wide with a mouth which is fed by the Mediterranean,'' Jones explained.

"If the wind comes from certain directions we expect it to be like here which could be to our benefit, but when the wind comes from the south, off Africa, it turns into big seas.'' For the past four years Barboza has been on an Olympic mission in the Soling class, along with his crew of Jones, Craig Davis and more recently DeSilva.

Last chance: Match racer Adam Barboza (above) and his crew of Nick Jones and Ray DeSilva head to Spain this weekend in a last ditch attempt to qualify for September's Sydney Olympics.