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