I might have to eat my words - well not all of them. But I have to admit that the marginally-more-fun-than-watching-paint-dry Yngling class deserves some credit for providing some truly thrilling action at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais. The women's keelboat might be dull, but the showdown between our top two Skandia GBR teams was a nailbiter.

Congratulations to Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, who clinched the Yngling World Championship in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Shirley Robertson, with her crew Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor, pushed her former team mates all the way - a credit to Shirley's ability to rise to the big occasion.

When Shirley pulled out of the Breitling Regatta in Holland just a few weeks earlier, saying she needed to spend time sorting the boat out rather than getting valuable regatta experience under her belt, this smacked of desperation. It probably was, but Shirley's result at the Worlds - taking the bronze medal - suggests she put her limited time into the right place.

Shirley shot out of the blocks with scores of 2,3,1 early in the regatta. Then she had a mid-event wobble with a couple of scores in double figures before coming back strongly towards the end of qualifying.

In the final qualifying race, the two British teams engaged in some match racing, such was their lead over the rest of the field. Shirley finished in 3rd, one place ahead of Sarah in 4th. "I think I have always been very endgame-orientated. For us this is a very important event," said Shirley. "If you do not do well here, then that is it. Everything we were doing was focussed on this. How we did in Holland or Hyeres is completely irrelevant. I know how to put together a programme and I know how to make that all come together at the right time. We have not been as polished here as I would have liked but we are happy with our new boat and set-up."

Shirley was on a roll, and that comment was surely intended to ramp up the pressure on her rivals. However, in the Medal Race it was Shirley who faltered with a bad start, which she then compounded by infringing a German boat later on in the race, forcing Shirley to take penalty turns. Not that it was a walk in the park for two Sarahs and a Pippa. I caught up with the girls and their coach Paul Brotherton later that evening at dinner, where they were allowing themselves a first taste of wine after a week of monastic living, allowing nothing other than water and energy drinks to pass their lips. Poor Pippa was the butt of a few jokes after she had fallen out of the boat at the windward mark. "I had just gone forward to put the pole on the mast and when I came back I went to throw my weight over the side but my feet missed the toe straps."

Pippa says her younger days mucking about in - and falling out of - Cadets stood her in good stead, getting herself back into the boat with the help of Sarah Webb. But Sarah Ayton winced as she recalled how close the boat got to scraping the windward mark. Fortunately they just made it around cleanly, with Pippa back in the boat, and they finished 6th. Shirley's mishaps had relegated her to 9th in the race, and out of contention for the World title. But a 2nd place in the Medal Race for the USA team skippered by Sally Barkow had lifted them to 2nd overall, just one point behind two Sarahs and a Pippa. It could have been a different story if the Brit girls had hit the mark, but they got away with it, and the three blondes were delighted to clinched victory.

"It's just awesome," said the winning skipper. "We've been working so hard for this ever since I became a helm and especially since Pippa joined our team at the end of the last year. Preparing for the event, we knew it would be a windy venue, which are the conditions that Shirley is strong in, so we knew there was the chance that it could have come down to who beat who in the medal race. Our goal was to win the start, we did that and managed to hold on."

The previous day, Shirley had said: "If you do not do well here, then that is it." Regretfully for her, perhaps it is. The question remains as to whether the selectors will offer a further chance to Shirley to prove herself. The more likely scenario is that if the Sarahs and Pippa score well at the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao in August, then that will be it. Shirley's former team mates will get the nod ahead of her.

However, Shirley pleaded her case to keep the Yngling selection open a while longer. "This was only the third medal race I have competed in since the new format was introduced two years ago," she said. "I felt we sailed a really good regatta this week, but our execution of the Medal Race wasn't good enough. But we've come such a long way in such a short space of time. Who would have thought we would be battling it out for the gold medal here against teams who have been together for the last three years?"

I have to say, despite her double gold medal winning pedigree, I was one of many who didn't think Shirley could do it. As a mother of one-year-old twins, sailing with Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor for little more than a year, to take a bronze medal at the Worlds is another phenomenal chapter in Shirley's incredible career. But if her former apprentice Sarah Ayton succeeds in medalling in Qingdao this August, that should be enough to secure her ticket to the Games next year, and deservedly so. As ever for a strong set-up like Skandia Team GBR, it's sad a potential medal-winning crew will be left behind, but that is the harsh way of the Olympics.

With Ben Ainslie choosing not to compete in Cascais, having only just driven out of Valencia at the end of a gruelling America's Cup campaign with the Kiwis, this was Ed Wright's opportunity to prove his mettle as a worthy rival to the reigning Olympic Champion. Unfortunately it didn't go his way in the Medal Race. Ed, last year's European Champion, went into the final in fourth place overall, with just five points separating seven sailors. But an 8th place in the Medal Race relegated him to 6th overall, and he has left the door wide open for a strong comeback by Ben Ainslie.

In the end it was Spain's Rafael Trujillo who took the Finn Gold Cup. Trujillo has taken Silver behind Ben in both the Worlds and Olympics, and more recently has been sailing with Iain Percy as part of the ill-fated +39 Challenge in the America's Cup. Trujillo will have had limited time to get reacquainted with the Finn, but he has always performed well in the breeze, and there was breeze aplenty in Cascais. So much so, in fact, that not one class managed to complete a full series.

The Tornados and Stars had it worst, with their series being curtailed without even a Medal Race to round off the action. Still, a great comeback by those other +39 Challenge sailors, Iain Percy and new crew Andrew ‘Bart' Simpson, who took a bronze medal after a very short build-up to this regatta. Like Trujillo in the Finn, Percy has always been at his most comfortable in the strong breeze, so Cascais played well to his strengths. Now he has to see if he can nail some light-weather performance in the Star, an area which has long been his Achilles heel, but one he will need to overcome for China.

This year's winners in the Star were Robert Scheidt and Bruno Parada, with the Brazilian helm looking increasingly like he's going to carry his former dominance in the Laser through to the Olympic keelboat. With former Finn sailor Xavier Rohart and his crew Pascal Rambeau finishing in 2nd, Percy and Bart in 3rd, and last year's Star World Champions from New Zealand, Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams in 4th, once again it is the new breed of Star sailors that are dominating the class, taking their kinetic skills from Lasers and Finns and transferring them to the heavier Star.

Meanwhile in the Laser, Tom Slingsby looks most like the sailor who can dominate the singlehander now that Scheidt has moved on to other challenges. The 22-year-old Aussie won the Worlds comfortably, with Paul Goodison putting in a solid but unremarkable performance to come 5th overall. In the Laser Radial, Charlotte Dobson headed the Brits in 10th overall, so the women will have to improve their game markedly for a shot at a medal in next year's Games.

A 5th place for Leigh McMillan and Will Howden in the Tornado gives some hopes of a medal-winning performance in Qingdao next year, and the difference in this class from something like the Laser is that a small technical breakthrough can help you leap up the pecking order. Let's hope the Brits can find that magic bullet some time in the next 12 months.

There are few teams that show ability to be consistent in this toughest of technical classes. The 2005 Worlds winners Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz won this year's Worlds, so clearly they are no flash in the pan. Former Europe sailor Carolijn Brouwer sailing former Finn silver medallist and boyfriend Sebastien Godefroid sailed the regatta of their lives to finish runner-up ahead of Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis in 3rd, just in front of last year's champions from Australia, Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby.

Most notable absentees from the top 20 were the Austrian double Olympic Champion team of Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher, the big breeze clearly not to their tastes. Not that they'll be overly concerned, because they are still the form team in lighter airs, and that's what the next Olympics is all about (I'm hoping if I say this enough, it will actually end up being a case of ‘it's not normally like this', and the Games will blow a glorious Force 5 all week!).

The Cascais Worlds was a rare case of an event being marred by too much wind, but overall these combined Worlds have been a big success, just like Cadiz four years earlier. The prevailing wind in Cascais is offshore, so that even when the wind was touching 30 knots it was still just about sailable. The Portuguese people are friendly, the venue is beautiful, and I would recommend it to anyone.

I haven't finished with this event yet. As I write, the 49ers and 470s are about to go out and contest their Medal Races, and there is some excitement to come out of Cascais yet, so I'll be back to you in another fortnight to tell you just how things worked out for our boys and girls.