Marginal gains, fine tuning, the elusive final pieces of the jigsaw.
Whatever metaphor you care to choose, everyone in high performance sport is desperately seeking an edge.
The margins between winning a medal or not in Olympic sport are so miniscule that athletes leave no stone unturned, believing that even the tiniest gain can lead to a monumental outcome.
It is this quality of preparation and dedication that the Olympic Federation of Ireland supports through the Flogas Performance Programme and Dublin sailors Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove are among its beneficiaries.
Between the weather and the water few athletes face as many constantly changing variables as Olympic sailors.
The skiff pair, who are coached by fellow-Olympian Matt McGovern, were agonisingly just three points off a bronze medal in Paris last Summer and have ring-fenced this grant to get some additional expertise on wind reading and strategy in specific weather conditions.
“Whenever the wind is offshore you can get a lot of shifts and gusts so we’re using it to get an expert in wind strategy and tactics to add something to our campaign,” explains Dickson, their Howth YC helm.
“This funding allows us to consult with someone (Paul Brotherton) who is very good at it to teach us to improve our strategy and tactics on those days where you get that wind off the shore, blowing out to sea.
“It’s not that Ireland doesn’t get these conditions but it’s about racing in these conditions and he’s particularly familiar with the 49er, has coached 49ers for the last few cycles and really knows how it works in these winds,” Dickson adds.
Brotherton was a 49er European Champion and competed for Team GB in a 470 at the 1992 Olympics but is now a renowned coach and wind expert.
Olympic sailing is often likened to an extremely complex chess match on water where the pieces and weather conditions are constantly shifting, particularly so in speedy 49ers which are known as the Formula One of fleet racing.
“You’re trying to predict what’s somewhat unpredictable on a racecourse and it’s often also to do with your positioning compared to other boats,” Dickson adds.
“Sometimes you are attacking or defending in certain positions, staying on the lift. It’s about knowing where to start and how to find the best pressure. There’s a lot of nuances around different types of days.
“You can get a straightforward offshore day where you’re going to get pressure and shift from anywhere, and then you can get days where you get it much more on the edges. This should help us identify those before we go out so we’re more sharp and ready in the races.”
Such are the fine details that could help Ireland’s talented world junior 49er champions in 2018 to finally replicate that at senior level.
They held second place throughout the Paris Olympic regatta until the deciding medal race when they were one of three teams who re-started, perceiving that they had broken the start which the Irish stars actually hadn’t.
That resulted in their heartbreaking fourth place, a position they matched in the latest world rankings.
Next up for the crew is ‘Kieler Woch’, Germany’s legendary Kiel Week (June 21-29) and the World Championships, in Italy in October, is their big focus for 2025.
For Flogas Managing Director John Rooney there is obvious synergy in the 49ers benefitting from their partnership with OFI.
“We too look at wind every day for the purpose of electricity generation,” he notes.
“As a company Flogas has come from an LPG background to become a full national energy provider with gas, electricity and solar. We are really thinking big now and felt we had to think big with our sponsorship.
“We thought ‘what’s bigger than Team Ireland?’
“The Olympic Games unites the whole country and even within our business it’s given us such a great buzz. We’ve got the Olympic rings on our letterheads now which really motivates us and gives our staff further motivation to keep thinking big!”