The 2009 Western Hemisphere Spring Championship ended last Friday and as luck would have it Paul Cayard and I managed to hang on and win the title!

This was the 9th Silver Star title for Paul and my 2nd. I was really happy to win this championship- it feels great to win again!

Paul and I put in a few days of training before we headed to Miami to compete in the Barcardi Cup last month and I think it gave us a bit of an edge. It turns out that a few of the competitors showed up early to the springs this year, but the weather was so heinous they weren’t able to leave the dock. Paul arrived Saturday night, which allowed us to sail and measure Sunday and compete in the practice race Monday afternoon. Paul selected the bow number for us and he choose lucky number 13, in addition to the normally unlucky 13 bow number we chose, we also won the practice race – which is also supposed to be bad luck.

The first day of racing saw some potential for thunder showers but fortunately the Race Committee was able to fit in one race that we won! The second day of racing was much of the same overcast conditions. This time we sailed two races and had a great day with a finish of 1,2. So after 3 races and 2 days of sailing we had a 1,1,2 and were leading the series.

Thursday’s races were cancelled due to hurricane force winds and waves, so Paul and I opted to head to the gym to get in a workout and get out of the tornado that was heading our way.

Thursday night the gang came to my restaurant. It was quite fun to see the boys making food, taking orders and just having a good time! This regatta was special for me because currently I live in the area and it’s nice to see my friends and compete against them in my backyard! Rodney Hagebols (aka Coach or Roooooooodddnnneeeyyyy) was on fire. Simply put, he is one of the best guys on this planet. His crew Conrad Brown added to the 24hr comedy fest with Cayard leading the group with his one liners, honestly if we had movie cameras in the house it would be the #1 rated tv show in America.

Friday saw the last day of racing and the Race Committee got in 3 good ones. Thankfully we won the tie breaker over Johnny Mac and big Phil Trinter (the man I was a caddy for at the 2004 Athens Olympics). The Pass Christian Yacht Club held a great party Friday night with a proper awards ceremony. Lots of locals turned up for the event I think people really enjoyed themselves! We carried the party to a local bar where I taught a few new dance moves to some of the locals who seemed to be very impressed.

Saturday morning came way too early, my flight left at 1100 and I still needed to pack. The International Olympic Committee and Chicago 2016 flew me up to take part in the Evaluation Commission walk through of all the different venues. Chicago is one of four finalists to host the 2016 Olympic Summer Games (the other three possible cities are, Rio de Janeiro, Toyko and Madrid).

Sailing legend Buddy Melges (for sure top ten on my list of nicest people ever to meet, great guy and sharp as a tack) was my partner at Soldier Field along with 2008 Gold Medalist (soccer) Carli Lloyd we spoke in front of the EC for about 3 minutes. In my mind Chicago should be a shoe in to host the Games but that decision won’t be made until October this year, so keep your fingers crossed. There were lots of Olympians present at this event, some of them included Rulan Gardner (he is a massive guy who won the Gold in 2000-wrestling over the Russian who hadn’t be beaten) Nadia Comaneci, Bonnie Blair, Greg Louganis, Jackie Joyner Kersee to name a few were all there. We had a private dinner the night before so I got to spend time with all of them! Hey I even met the mayor of Chicago, just an all round cool experience!

Then it was time to travel home after my 24hr trip. All went well from Chicago to Atlanta, then it went pear shaped. As we pulled into the gate in Atlanta the Flight Attendant came over the PA and asked us for a moment of silence to remember our fallen war heroes. She then instructed the plane full of people to look out the right window. This image I might never forget. There were 6 Marines in dress blues standing at attention, they were there picking up their friend who came home in a box who was being off loaded from a plane. I have never seen anything like this before and there was not a dry eye on the plane. It makes you think that when everything seems heinous it really isn’t that bad.

After I sorted myself out and got it together, I caught my flight from Atlanta to Gulfport. This is where is gets interesting. After we took off, there was this noise that was just frightening, so I turned up my ipod but that would not muffle the sound of what I thought was the wing falling off.

After about 7 minutes the noise stopped and the captain came on the PA and said yes they heard the noise as well, the landing gear was not retracting and they were unsure if all the wheels went back down! He also told us it was unsafe to proceed to Gulfport and we were turning back to Atlanta for an emergency landing. So after another 50 minutes circling in the air we landed safely with flashing lights surrounding the runway. We made it back to the gate where the flight was cancelled, it was now midnight I tried to rent a car and drive home from Atlanta but all the rental agencies had nothing for rent, so I got a hotel and got home at noon the following day.

All in all, it was a great trip, some of it sad, some really scary but overall another fantastic experience!

What’s next? Hopefully more sailing with Paul, getting back to my business and trying to plan my next move I am not sure what it is yet but lots to consider! In the mean time Rodney will be flying back in a few weeks to sail a Finn regatta at the Gulfport Yacht Club) so looking forward to that!

Austin


Fregene’s Pizzeria
1116 Cowan Rd.
Gulfport, MS 39507
Phone -(228)604-2750
Fax -(228)604-2757
www.fregenes.com

I have not been that keen to write updates this week, given the fact that the first half of this regatta we were a bit off the pace. It’s funny because in our training leading up to this regatta, we had great boat speed in the practice races, winning 75% of them.

One of our coaches, Steve Erickson aka" Wonder", thinks we may have been here in Miami too long and came into this event a bit crispy. I don’t disagree with him. I am feeling good, but it’s been a long month.

In addition, the entire team house was riddled with a serious case of the flu and it took some good antibiotics to sort it out. I was also recently drilling a hole in one of our masts while the mast was in the boat, using a bit that was too small. As I was trying to make the hole larger in diameter, I broke the bit! While doing this I had so much force on the drill bit that I hit myself in the face with the drill. Big problem! Full on bloody nose, front teeth out of place not sure how it went so ugly, but I am all sorted now. In any event, there was a new team rule passed. I am no longer allowed to use power tools and I think the team is voting on taking away my hand held screwdriver privileges!

We are fortunate that the US Sailing team has a full time physiotherapist on staff. Shawn’s been at our team house at 0800 every morning and comes back again at 1600 when we are fresh off the water. It’s nice I roll out of bed with toothpicks in my eyes, go face down on the training table, get stretched out and a rub down. Then after we return from a long day on the water, Shawn is at the team house with the cool vest ready to go and fixes all of our aches and pains.

Our days start and end the same every morning:

0800 wake up

0805 face down on the training table that is set up in the kitchen

0815 breakfast

0900 team meeting, weather, current etc

0930 tender to yacht club

0945 rig check, launch

1015 dock out

1355 warning signal for the one race of the day

1500 race is over

1600 return to dock

1630 team meeting at yacht club to discuss day, including areas we can improve on and what we did well

1700 back to team house via tender

1715 face down on training table, rub down, stretch and hydrate

1900 dinner

2200 lights out…

Sound pretty militant? It sure is.

Well, the Star Worlds started last Friday and we had a solid 10th place finish in race one. It’s a keeper and was a nice way to begin the week. In race two, we had a below average start and when we made it to the weather mark in not so good shape we saw our bow number on the weather mark boat, identifying us a OCS on the black flag earning us a DSQ and 105 points for the day. Big problem… and not what you want on day two of a world championship. In addition to us being disqualified, there were 24 other boats with the same issue. Look this wasn’t the first time this has happened and I promise you it’s not the last. You have roll with the punches and tomorrow is another day.

Day 3 saw us in the same situation. Average start but this time we made a few rig adjustments that were just plain wrong. I can honestly say that this race was the slowest a star boat has gone upwind. Heinous, just heinous. We rounded the top mark in 90th position, We could have complained about this bad race and our speed, but that wouldn’t help (in all fairness I belted out a few profanities and got it out of my system) but we managed to pass 50 some boats and ended up finishing the race in 40th place.

Looking back on the first three days, we did some really good things. We also ticked a few things off our list that were geared towards the Olympics and we learned a ton about our new gear package we have been running. Still blows me away how much we learn on a daily basis. When you have the kind of coaching talent we have, we make huge gains in short periods of time, which is good, because when you have a well funded team you always run out of time not money. Things need to get ticked off the list sooner than later or August will be here before we know it.

After race 3 we had a lay day. The team and I changed masts and went with our normal set up. The past two races have gone well. We had a 6th place finish in race 4 and a 3rd place finish in race 5 on Wednesday.

Race 4 was full on. It blew between 20 knots and over 30kts in the puffs. In a star boat when it’s this windy you have your hands full. The race committee sent the fleet in a course 0 which is upwind, followed by a reach on starboard to the gybe mark, then a port reach to the leeward mark, upwind again, downwind and then upwind to the finish. Each leg is about 2.1 miles long. The race started great, with us getting a good start near the boat end of the line. We rounded the top mark in 4th, we blasted off on the first reach and were able to extend on the guys behind us and keep pace with the top 3 boats at the gybe mark. Things were all under control but during the last half of the second reach, the top three teams extended on us a little. Up the next beat, we played the shifts nicely but the French and Swedish teams managed to pass us. At this point the wind is really blowing hard, so hard that JD and I needed to scream at one another to hear what the other was saying. “Full on” is an under statement. We rounded the next top mark headed for the downwind run. In a star boat downwind in 30+ kts of wind is fun, scary but fun! Well the breeze didn’t let up it kept coming. About ten boats lost their masts, one boat flipped over and a few people fell out of their boats. We were up in about 4th place with 100 yards to go to the leeward mark and all of a sudden I looked back and what I saw was insane, white foam… the monster puff was coming in hot! Two boats about 50 yards behind us both lost their masts, so I made a quick executive decision! I told JD we were taking the pole down ASAP! This puff had to be 35 kts! I was sitting behind JD on for the last 75 yards to the bottom mark, it was all we could do to keep the bow above the water. We managed to get around the bottom mark in good order (wasn’t easy) and finish the race in 6th. Great finish in such trying conditions.

Wednesday was race 5 and from the start of the day it looked like a carbon copy of Tuesday with heinous puffs and a day destined to be filled with more carnage. Well, the breeze shifted hard right, clouds moved over the race course and the breeze died. They started us and we made it around the top mark in 6th place. We made some nice gains down the wacky run. Guys in 50th place around the top mark managed to pass 40 boats on that leg alone. Huge pressure differences down the run but we managed to hang in there and get to the bottom mark overlapped with the leaders. Well, it was a close situation with the leaders and I was on the bow going downwind the SUI team took us past the mark. I thought JD was going to turn the boat down but instead he turned up and I fell off the bow into the water! Imagine this leading the 104 boat fleet and I fall off the bow five yards before the leeward mark! Lucky I have been in this situation before and I went under water with my hand raised above the water when the boat when over my head I was able to grab the mainsheet get myself to the transom and pull myself out of the water (with a little help from JD). Then I took the pole down and we rounded the mark. It went so fast that I still can’t figure out how it happened.

We actually didn’t miss a beat, had a great rounding and put in a quick few tacks on a few shifts. We managed to pass the guys who rounded with us, we hung on and finished the race in 3rd.

We have one race to go and are sitting in 13th position overall. Not where I thought we would be given the fact that we had an outstanding training camp before this regatta. This is life, this is only a sport there are bigger issues than me falling in the water or hitting myself in the face with a drill.

I love being with my team, we have such a great group of guys. What a journey, what a journey…

Austin

It’s been a few weeks since my last update and a lot has been happening at the Trinity Yachts Team House.

I arrived here in Miami on March 20th with one of our coaches, Rod Hagebols. Together we spent a week getting the boat ready and tightening up some loose ends. When you have a team as big as ours, it seems like the job lists get longer and longer!

John and the rest of the team arrived in Miami on March 27th and from that day we have been training with Robert Schidet and Bruno Prada.

We spent the first week and a half testing a new mast which up to this point seems very promising! Our days typically started with two boat testing, then we usually rolled into short course racing. It’s funny, when we have a few top guys in the short racing (ie Sheidt and John Dane), it’s amazing how quickly a five boat small race course turns into 30 boats with mile long beats. Anyway, fantastic training and we even managed to win about 75% of all the races!! Very good stuff!

On Monday, March 30th I left Miami for a fundraiser at my home club, the St. Francis Yacht Club. After getting delayed for three hours in Miami, and sprinting to make my connection in Dallas, I finally arrived in San Francisco at 0300. My dear buddy, Paul Erickson, never complained once about picking me up. It’s great to have a fantastic support team! Paul and Val Erickson were great hosts and I hated leaving their house in Tiburon – it’s AWESOME! I love that place!

After a few hours of sleep in San Francisco, I made it to my first radio interview with Kevin Kradich (810 AM radio) What a cool experience! It went really well and I will attach the radio clips in my next blog, so check it out.

I had a few other meetings in SF, then headed to the St Francis Yacht Club for the event. What a great evening! John and I really appreciated the generous contribution the Club made to our campaign. I also got to see some old friends that I havent seen for a few years. The night ended around 0300 at Denny’s. That Grand Slam tasted fantastic!

Then it was back to Miami. First off, Miami has to be one of the best spots in the world to race Star boats. Warm water and air temperatures and plenty of fun things to do. I cant say enough about this place I love it here.

Today (Friday) was the first day of the 2008 Star World Championships, hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club. Thursday night was the opening ceremony for the Worlds – what a show! I think it was the coolest opening ceremony I have attended thus far. They marched all the flags of the competing nations in, with some sailors following their national flags. JD and I marched in with the American flag which was a neat experience. It’s especially cool knowing that JD and I will be representing the USA come this summer!

On the race course, there are over 100 boats competing in this year’s Worlds. We had a below average start, after four general recalls. So we had to tack out after the start and take a few transoms, but we came out ok and had good upwind speed. We rounded the top mark in 18th. We stayed focused, passed a few boats here and there, and finished the race in 10th place. Good first day. It’s a keeper.

There is a lot of pressure on some teams still trying to qualify for their nation for this summer’s Olympics. There are four national spots left, with about ten nations trying to qualify….We have five races to go, but we came out of the boxes with a good finish. We just need to keep this train rolling.. in the right direction…

Gotta go! The Team Doctor/Pyhsio is here and then I’ll go for a bike ride, stretch and a rub down…

Later

Austin