THE London Olympics ambitions of a local sailing star are on the rocks.

Following recent international decisions Guernsey’s young British international, Clare Chapple (pictured), has been left bitterly disappointed with the International Sailing Federation’s  controversial choice of boats for the 2012 Games.

It was hoped by Chapple that the Laser Radial would be dropped from the equipment list in favour of the Byte dinghy.

The Laser Radial favours the larger sized woman and to sail this class of boat at maximum efficiency a sailor needs to be 66kg to 70kg in weight and at least 5ft 8in. tall. The Byte is more sympathetic to the smaller woman like Chapple.

Chapple said: ‘It is disappointing that the men have two single-handed boats available to be sailed at the Olympics.

‘The Finn is sailed by men weighing 95kg plus and the Laser for men at 78kg. The continued choice of the Laser Radial does exclude the smaller women, [as] not all sailors reach this size  and it would have been more inclusive worldwide to have adopted a smaller size boat.’

Controversially, the two person Tornado catamaran was dropped from the Olympic line-up to  reduce the number classes from 11 to 10.