Great Britain once again finished the Olympic Games as the most successful sailing nation of all, winning five medals, including two golds, on the glorious waters of the Saronic Gulf.

Ben Ainslie became a double Olympic champion and, in the same way as Ellen MacArthur in ocean racing, is increasingly a name to take sailing into front rooms up and down the country.

Shirley Robertson and her Yngling crew won gold with a race to spare, the 470 crew took silver, Simon Hiscocks and Chris Draper were disappointed with just a bronze while Nick Dempsey became Britain's first windsurfing medallist.

His success, at just 24, embodies the reason Britain have remained ahead of the fleet despite the increased standards of international sailing in the last four years.

Dempsey is engaged to Sarah Ayton, a member of the victorious Yngling crew, but both had to sacrifice their immediate futures together in the quest for Olympic glory.

They were often training in the same place but rarely saw each other. During the Olympics they sometimes had the chance to meet up for just 10 minutes a day.

Dempsey's preparations were immaculate. He has lived in Athens for the past three months training on the Olympic waters, adapting to the conditions and learning the wind shifts.

Stephen 'Sparky' Park, the Royal Yachting Association Olympic manager, helped develop programmes designed for Dempsey to peak at the Games, including a training camp with Britain's cycling pursuit team.

And it all proved invaluable as Dempsey relied on immense physical endurance to battle through the light winds and produce a stunning display to win the final race and secure bronze.

"After Sydney where we had an exceptional performance, we looked to refine the programmes a little bit more, look at things we thought went well and things we didn't think went well," said Park.

"All the other teams are doing everything they possibly can to catch up and overtake us. You can see that by the number of countries now winning medals. The level of competitiveness is increasing and we have got stay ahead.

"We have not been looking to revolutionise, we have just been trying to evolve. At the top you have to keep raising the bar and not sit back and say, 'we have got a working formula, let's stick with that'."

Indicative of those rising expectations was the disappointment with which Hiscocks and Draper accepted their bronze medal in the 49er class.

Their last four years had been dedicated to gold. Gold was their aim and no other medal compensated for missing out.

As they crossed the finish line in their final race, Draper stamped his foot on the deck in anger, frustration and disappointment and could barely contain his emotions.

That reaction, explained Park, is a sign that British sailing is moving swiftly in the right direction.

"We want people to win gold medals. We try and engender a medal winning culture and people should be striving for success," said Park.

"We have got a successful team, where a lot of sailors have won major international championships over the years so therefore we set high standards.

"If they don't succeed in winning that gold medal the initial feeling is one of disappointment because they have been dreaming of winning that gold medal for four, eight, 12 years."

Nevertheless, underpinning this personal ambition is a team spirit and winning culture that the RYA have worked hard to foster and believe is at the heart of British success.

At the medal ceremonies in the delicate amphitheatre on the harbour wall at Agios Kosmas the British sailing teams were always out in force to raucously cheer each and every success.

"We do different team building exercises and group sessions to get the team working together," said Park.

"We effectively try and facilitate the building of the team. Without giving the game away to the other nations, I think the big difference is we work hard as a team, not just as individuals.

"We think hard about what may affect the winning performance and try to encourage a medal winning performance."

While Hiscocks and Draper are likely to carry their dream of gold until the next Olympics, in Beijing 2008, they will be joined in their ambitions by a growing band of youngsters ready to make the step to senior sailing.

Britain won five medals at last month's World Junior Championships, proof positive the RYA's youth schemes are working and the sport is being opened up to a wider audience.

That is something the heroics of MacArthur or the inspiring success of Ainslie can only help with and the RYA are launching a new programme called 'On Board' aimed at getting "bums on boats".

And despite all the success in Athens, the hunt for the next generation of Olympic sailors continues on relentlessly

"We'd like to think we can continue to build," said Park.

"There are obvious youngsters who stand out and they will be supported in an Olympic transition system into the Olympic sailing squad.

"The first Olympic camp for this next campaign begins at the end of the September."

Park may now have to start reassessing the kind of estimates he gives out after informing UK Sport he expected Team GB's sailors to return home with three medals, one of each colour.

Based on the assumption that half the medal chances prove fruitful, the same estimate was made ahead of the Sydney Games and on each occasion Britain won five to finish top of the sailing medals table.

This year nations like Israel and China won sailing medals - an indication of the increasing international standards - but the RYA are constantly refining their training programmes to keep that extra step ahead.

Britain have been the most successful sailing nation now for two successive Olympics. How many times does something have to happen before it becomes a tradition?