PAULA Lewin begins her campaign to qualify for the 2004 Olympics later this month when she, her twin sister Peta and Lisa Neasham travel to Florida for the first of a number of international regattas which will hopefully finish in Greece in two and a half years time.

Lewin competed in the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics but skipped the Sydney Games.

But after much thought last year she and her crew decided to go all out for the Greece Games.

And while Lewin rose to the top of the women's match racing rankings, for the Greece Olympics she will be sailing in a fleet which she said, "is totally different from match racing".

She added: "We will also be sailing a new (class of) boat - the Yngling which is built in Scandinavia and is a keel boat - it is acutally like a mini Soling. I haven't sailed it a lot. It is basically a small dinghy - about 20 feet long - with a keel." Lewin said she and her crew put a lot of thought into whether to go all out for the 2004 Olymics. "They (the IOC) decided to increase the number of women in the Olympics so the male Soling class got pulled. We originally thought it was going to be match racing. But later the Olympic Committee pulled the match racing and decided on the Yngling for fleet racing. So I basically spent the next six months thinking about what I wanted to do. There used to be four of us and the Yngling is a three-person boat. There were a lot of things to consider." And one of the main issues was that the racing in the Olympics was not going to be match racing but fleet racing." While Lewin and her crew rose in the rankings on the match racing circuit, they will now have to adjust to fleet racing. "Match racing only involves two boats - it is a game where you just have to beat that boat. It doesn't matter how you do it or how fast you go. Fleet racing involves many boats racing and your goal is to be up in the top all the time. It is a very different stategy."

And then there is the expense of fleet racing. Lewin said: "The expence is so much more in fleet racing because now you have to buy your own boat, your own sails and everything and then transport it around the world. In match racing all you do is show up at the club and they give you a boat." However to help out, Bermuda-based insurance giants ACE will be sponsoring Lewin and her crew.

"Last summer before we had decided on definitely trying to qualify for the Olympics, we decided we wanted to do the Rolex Championships in Annapolis in Maryland (in J-22s). We said: 'Let's give this a chance'. We had expectations of a top-10 finish and in the end we finished in third place. It was a last minute thing for us. The girl who won it had bought a new boat and had professional sailors and so we were quite pleased with our result. It was then I decided 'It is worth it to try for the Olympics'."

For 2002 Lewin and company have decided on racing perhaps seven regattas. She said: "The main one will be the World Championships in Swizerland in July. The Worlds will be the first opportunity to qualify your country. In past Olympics each country was given a spot. Now those sports are awarded regionally. I think we are grouped in with America and the Caribbean."

Among other regattas the Bermudian women are thinking of entering is the West Coast Regatta in March and a few in Newport on the US east coast which has smaller fleets. "We are also toying with the idea of doing some really big regattas in Europe like the Spa Regatta in Holland in April. There is also one in Germany at the end of June which will be good warm-up for Worlds," said Lewin.

While the Ynging is quite big in Europe - especially in eastern Europe - it is fairly new to the west but Lewin said the numbers will start growing because it is now an Olympic class.

Their boat is presently being built and will be delivered to the US for the Maimi Olympic Week racing at the end of this month.

And the three Bermudian sailors will be joined in Maimi by good friend and occasional coach Peter Bromby who will be competing in the Star class in his own campaign to qualify for the Greece Olympics.

"Peter will be staying in the same hotel as us - we are all good friends and he has helped us with coaching. It will be great if we could both make the Olympics. He has coached us at two World Championships - in Italy and St. Petersburg, Florida. We also race against each other here in Bermuda in the Etchell class," said Lewin adding that she and her crew will hopefully get some coaching in their Olympic campaign.