Maybe it was the remote-control helicopters that did it. Winning the 470 World Championships, that is, which is what Nic Asher and Elliot Willis have just done in China. I spoke to the duo not long after they'd got back, and Nic says that one of the things he thought they got right was taking a lot of downtime between the end of the Olympic Test Regatta in Qingdao and the beginning of the Worlds in Rizhao 50 miles up the road.

"We locked ourselves away in our hotel room for quite a lot of the time," explains Nic. "We didn't do any sailing in between, we made a conscious effort to stay away from it all, got a lot of sleep in, just relaxed, spent a bit of time flying our model helicopters." Model helicopters? Just how much Lottery funding do these guys get? But actually the duo bought themselves a pair of remote-control copters while they were in Qingdao, for the princely sum of £15 each. "We didn't expect to get much for our money, but they were actually quite sturdy." Sturdiness was a useful attribute, he explains, as the helicopters would return to earth at quite a rate if you allowed them to stray beyond the limits of the remote control's range.

Winning a 470 World Championship requires sturdiness of character too, and Nic and Elliot's victory is all the more impressive for the fact they are aged just 21 and 23 respectively. For my money the 470 Worlds is just about the hardest regatta in sailing, matched only by the Laser World Championship. When you think of all our illustrious 470 sailors over the years, it's worth remembering that the only time Britain has ever won the Worlds before is in 1988, when Nigel Buckley and Pete Newlands took the title in Israel. John Merricks and Ian Walker won just about everything there was to win in the 470, and they came tantalisingly close to winning the Worlds without ever quite doing it. They finished runners-up in the 1996 Worlds just as those other Olympic silver medallists, Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, did in last year's Worlds at a windy San Francisco.

The history lesson is not lost on the pair. "Before the regatta, our coach Tom Saunt told us it was 18 years since a British team had won the event, so that gave us some inspiration," says Nic. When they went up to get their trophy at the end of the regatta, Elliot says it was "a bit of a non-event, but now we're home we're just realising what we've achieved". They have received a number of congratulatory emails from top sailors, including Ian Walker himself. "John and Ian were such an inspiration to us when we were growing up, so it's nice to get emails like that," says Nic.

Despite being so young, the partnership has already been going for five years now, the first year in 420s and the next four in the 470. So there is a real depth of understanding between the pair, and they have a grasp of some skills that the Brits are not always known for. They came to international prominence early in 2005 when they won the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma. I remember talking to Paul Brotherton, who was coaching and observing that event from the sidelines, and he said Nic and Elliot's crew movement in marginal trapezing conditions was the best in the world. This subtle skill has traditionally been the domain of the Mediterranean nations, the French, Spanish and Italian 470 sailors typically being the fastest in the 5 to 10-knot range.

It was this wind band, combined with some nasty chop, that prevailed for the recent Worlds, and that suited Nic and Elliot just fine. "We like the high-wiring conditions, it was an area that we worked on a lot when we were sailing 420s," explains Nic. "The Brits were crap at it, but we had a Worlds in Portugal, so we spent a lot of time training in those conditions, and identified some techniques used by the top sailors like the Italians."

Such is the telepathy between the two, there is little dialogue required between Nic and Elliot in these challenging conditions. "There is quite a big crossover when to get on the wire and when not to get on the wire but to stay on the side of the boat, but Elliot feels what is needed. He knows when to power up and when to let the boat heel slightly, when to keep it flat," explains Nic. Elliot repays the compliment by saying that Nic is exceptionally good at steering the boat smoothly and accurately. He also praises Nic for being "emotionally stable". As the old saying goes, it's not how well you sail your good races, it's how well you recover from your bad ones.

For Nic the key moment in the Worlds came in race three, during the qualifying section of the regatta. "We were going up the first beat and not doing very well. A Chinese boat went to go behind us on port tack, and we thought he was going to duck us. Next thing we know, he absolutely nailed the side of our boat. That span us around and brought us to a virtual stop. By the time we got going again, we were a couple of boats from the back at the windward mark. We were quite mad about it. We caught up to 4th in this race. That race made me realise that we were sailing well and we could go on and win this."

So while he might have cursed the Chinese team at the time, perhaps in part he had them to thank for eventual success? Nic didn't see it quite that way. "No, not quite. For a start we had to spend all night fixing the bloody thing, but it did make us focus. We were pretty angry. I had to hold on to Willis because I thought he was going to jump out and kill this guy. It was definitely that anger that helped us."

For Elliot, the key skill in their repertoire was downwind speed. "We're really quick when it's quite light, particularly when we start doing angles downwind." As the wind gets lighter and the gybing angles get bigger, so the emphasis moves increasingly to keeping good pressure in the kite. Not going so deep that the spinnaker starts to feel soggy, nor sailing so high that you end up sailing extra distance for no added gain. This calls for the utmost understanding between helm and crew. "There's constant dialogue about calling him up or down in those conditions," explains Elliot. "Effectively it's me steering the boat in those conditions. We're using body movement to help steer the boat too, not using too much rudder."

In terms of equipment selection, the team uses a New Zealand-built Mackay hull, a Superspar M7+, and sails from North UK, which are slightly out of fashion at the moment. Nic and Elliot were looking for a fast rig to take them to a good placing in last year's Worlds in San Francisco, which were expected to be windy. "We looked at who was going fast in those conditions and went for the North UK sails," says Nic. These sails are from the same family that powered Merricks and Walker to such success in the mid-90s, but since then other designs such as Olympic Sails and North Sails Japan have tended to be in vogue. Nic and Elliot scored a 6th in San Francisco, which was indeed a breezy regatta, and they have stayed with those sails ever since, finding good speed throughout the wind range. Perhaps their success in China will begin a swing back towards North Sails UK. After all, people often joke that in 470s, this year's new breakthrough is merely the same breakthrough from 10 or 20 years earlier. Things haven't really changed in 470 development for a long time.

With Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield still going very strong in the 470 class, the common perception of Elliot and Nic was as the talented understudies, still doing their apprenticeship with perhaps a view to representing Britain in Weymouth 2012. After the Worlds, everything has changed. I have written recently about other such ‘understudies' in Team GBR, such as Ed Wright posing a threat to Ben Ainslie, and Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes earning their right to be noticed alongside Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks after the Exmouth duo won the 49er Europeans earlier this summer. Asher and Willis have now launched themselves out of ‘apprentice' category to ‘contender' for 2008.

"Our goals at the beginning of the year were to medal in the Pre-Olympics and at the Worlds," explains Nic, who took Bronze in Qingdao to Rogers and Glanfield's Gold. "Another goal was to beat Nick and Joe in a regatta this year." The Worlds victory did that for the young upstarts, with their training partners finishing in 10th place. "That was the first event we've beaten them at. That definitely helps us."

While the two teams are good friends, they are realistic that with for that coveted selection spot for 2008, things are going to have to get serious. "We've had a bit of a chat to figure out what we're going to do in the Performance Squad. We'll probably carrying on sailing in the group together, but not share technical information," says Nic. Elliot adds: "The training group has been really good. I'm sure we'll stay pretty close for a while, then end up going our own ways. At some point it has to be that way, but for a little while yet I think we'll stay together. There's a training camp in Miami, then the early season regattas in Palma and Hyeres. After that we might have to do something different."

The Worlds in Cascais next July are a crunch point for any Team GBR sailor looking to get selected for China 2008. The new World Champions will probably have to get another medal in Portugal to prove that this year's victory wasn't just a flash in the pan. Despite an enforced absence from competition for the majority of this year, due to Nick Rogers breaking his wrist when falling off his mountain bike, the reigning Olympic silver medallists are still the established force in British 470 sailing. But now they have a fight on their hands. One way or another, Britain is going to be blessed with a world-class 470 crew in Qingdao two years from now.

Meanwhile, Nic and Elliot are taking some time out before getting back into training and competition at Weymouth in the Sail for Gold regatta. Elliot is from Sevenoaks in Kent - which coincidentally is where Ian Walker grew up - while Nic is from Lowestoft in Suffolk. The east coast used to be a hotbed of competition for dinghy sailing but it has been quiet of late. However, Nic has an interesting observation that might just make it the new hotspot for Olympic sailing. "The east coast is quite similar to Qingdao, with the chop and the tide. The conditions are quite similar in some places, so we could well do some training locally. You get the chop, you can get quite a confused swell from the side, and the tide as well." So maybe that's why he did so well in China? "Well, whenever I sail at home it's on the Broads, on flat water, I never sail on the sea at Lowestoft." Perhaps that will change now, and expect Nic and Elliot to spent more time sailing there, as Lowestoft earns itself a new reputation as the Qingdao of Europe.