Austin Sperry

Happy New Year!

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:11:29 GMT

Happy New Year!

2010 started off in grand style. Andy MacDonald and I won the Bob Levin Regatta this past weekend in Miami. It was the first regatta of the season.
We had about 20 boats registered for the event, unfortunately for the competitors we were greeted with 28 degree F weather rain/sleet and 25kts of breeze.

I think that must have been the world record for the coldest temperature Miami has ever encountered. I am still cold and the event ended last weekend!

This season, I will be sailing with Andy MacDonald. We are putting in a full court press for 2012. This being our first year together we have decided to take things slow and train in the US with the possibility of a few European events. Then when 2011 rolls around the full court press begins. Andy has been sailing full time for as long as I can remember. He is a member of the US Sailing Team Alpha Graphics and finished last year’s ISAF World Cup events in 6thplace with his crew Brian Fatih.

I am really looking forward to getting back in the boat with Andy. He is a tremendous sailor/athlete and an even better guy. Going forward we are planning on sailing the following events.

Harry Walker Regatta – January /Miami
Miami Olympic Classes Regatta – January /Miami
Bacardi Cup – March/Miami
Western Hemisphere Championships – Nassau, Bahamas/April

See you on the water.

Austin

Finn North Americans 2009

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:35:26 GMT

Over the past weekend I competed in the Finn National Championships. We had about 35 boats attending this event, including a few sailors from Europe and Zach Railey (my 2008 Olympic teammate who brought home a Silver medal from Beijing). My Father in law John Dane purchased three new Finns (one for me, one for him and one for his son John F) so we have a fully sorted program, really nice boats.
I rolled up to the Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans) on Thursday evening and shoved off around 1730 for a quick sunset session. I was the only one out on the water but the good news was I was the fastest boat that evening! I started getting a really bad sore throat and decided I had better head to the barn and rest up as we had 8 races scheduled over the next 3 days.

The next morning brought about 2 knots of wind and 3 races. If I have a weakness as a skipper, it’s the light light air aspect of sailing. Needless to say I struggled in 2 out of the 3 races but I did manage to place 6th in the second race, I attribute this to the breeze reaching about 5-6kts for about 35 minutes. Then it went very light, so I was hiking to leeward in a Finn (just heinous). I had another shocker in the 3rd race of the day.

That evening aboard Showdown I started to feel even worse than I did during the day, I took more medication than I should of, but managed to feel somewhat better in the morning and sailed in 3 more races on Saturday. I had 3 avg finishes. I learned a great deal about the boat and the correct way to sail it. I seemed to be doing much better downwind than I was going uphill. It was very impressive to watch Zach Railey and Bryan Boyd sail these boats. These guys are on another level. Zach is a great guy, you will see him around for a long time!

After the second day of racing I felt so bad I decided to see a doctor with all this chatter of H1N1 etc. Well I was told to rest, no more sailing for a few days and he gave me a shot and I was put on a serious antibiotic and then the doctor sent me to the Urgi care emergency room to get tested to make sure I didn’t have the swine flu. Test turned out negative, no flu but still feeling like garbage. Needless to say I missed the last day of the Finn NA’s.

My main goal coming into this event was finish in the top half of the fleet. I sail the Finn in order to become a better crew on the Star boat and get in better sailing shape. Results aside, I learned a ton about the boat sailing against some of the best Finn sailors in the World. I am looking forward to working on my weaknesses and seeing how I go next time.

Next up- Champion of Champions regatta crewing for my buddy, Paul Cayard.

Austin

Star North Americans Wrap-up

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:12:25 GMT

I just returned from Connecticut after sailing with Jim Buckingham in the Star North American Championships held in Westport. I love Connecticut. I attended prep school (high school) there, so I always enjoy going back.

First, Jim Buck and I sailed in the warm up regatta (Bedford Pitcher) held at the Cedar Point Yacht Club (CPYC). This was a great event with about 40 boats competing in the weekend regatta. The CPYC team led by Nelson Stephenson did an amazing job, from the evening parties to the on water support – everything was spot on.

The North American Championship had about 50 boats participating. It was really good to see the diversity within the fleet. It was true Star sailing with weekend sailors out there competing against Volvo Ocean Race winners, Olympians and America’s Cup veterans. Good times!

Jim and I ended up finishing 7th overall in the North American Championship and winning the masters division (skipper is over 50 years of age).

Jim and I had a great time, with excellent racing in a wide range of conditions from drifters to surfing down waves on the Long Island Sound. It was exciting stuff!

Looking ahead, I will be competing in the Finn National Championships next week. The Southern Yacht Club is hosting the event. Southern just finished their new facility (the old club burned down during the flood/hurricane Katrina). The new club is AWESOME. It is massive and has a huge gym – it’s beautiful.

I am looking forward to testing my fitness and skills out against some of the best Finn sailors in the world.

From there, I will be joining Paul Cayard in the Champion of Champions Regatta in St. Louis in mid-October.

Exciting times!

Austin

Newport Beach - District 5 Championships

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:47:27 GMT

Last weekend I travelled to Newport Beach, California to sail with my buddy Paul Cayard in the 2009 Star Class District 5 Championships. I flew in Friday afternoon, while Paul completed the Coastal Cup race from San Francisco to Long Beach.

I set the boat up and managed to get everything ready for his early Saturday arrival. The day started out with no sunshine and rain! Not very Southern Californian, we almost had to make an executive decision and stay in the bar all day due to the lack of sunshine.

Joking aside, we headed out of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club on a tow that lasted for roughly 10 miles at 1015. We arrived on the race course around 1130 got the sails up, had a look at the rig, checked the numbers and had a look at the race course.
Situation normal in Newport Beach – light, lumpy looked like it was going to be a massive day of hiking to leeward…

We completed 4 races and managed to stay near the top of the fleet all day long, by the end of racing on Saturday 3 points separated the top 3 boats. Close action!

Saturday night NHYC held a great party where Rick Peters organized for a band that he had been raving about for days leading up to the event! They lived up to Rick’s billing, “Human Lab” rocked.

It was great seeing old friends, man I must be getting old because their kids are growing up fast!

Sunday was more Southern Californian, sunny and the hint of a day with breeze. The conditions were fantastic, 12 knots a few nice waves to surf downwind and sunshine! Paul and I had a great day winning all three races and only being crossed once the entire day! But… we later learned that the R/C deployed a leeward gate in the 6th race? Go figure in the previous five races there was no leeward gate and in the 6th race of the series they implemented a gate? To make matters worse they set it to the left of the original mark, it would of made some sense to put the new mark to the right (looking downwind) it would have been a bit more clear. And to top things off the mark was attached to a line that was way too long and the mark had drifted downwind about 100 yards… well 90% of the fleet followed us and a few folks went around the “gate”.

Four days later and I still swear I never saw a leeward gate. I guess I need to wake up a bit because as the crew it’s one of my jobs to locate the marks. I was a bit off the pace with this aspect of my job. Thankfully, Paul had seven of the best starts possible to give us a chance! The good news is even with a DSQ in race 6 we still won the regatta!

So what’s next? My firm Delta Investment Management is hosting a lunch at the Gulfport Yacht Club Friday, July 10th, so my focus is now on making this the best lunch in the history of Delta!

Good times

Austin

Austin's Update from San Francisco

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:05:36 GMT

There have been some big changes on the professional front for me since I last wrote. I have joined Delta Investment Management (www.deltaim.com), an investment advisory firm out of San Francisco.

Before my Olympic days, I worked on the trading desk with Delta Investment Management’s founders, Nick Atkeson and Andrew Houghton. Delta runs individually managed accounts for people who would like to invest in stocks. Their track record is incredible. Last year, the strategy was down only 1.79% including fees and has beaten the S&P 500 by more than 600% since 1996.

As part of my new role with Delta, I have been travelling back and forth to San Francisco quite regularly. So last week, I was with friends celebrating Paul Cayard’s 50th birthday and before that, his daughter Allie’s 19th birthday.

In between all this celebrating, I have made it out on the water on a few occasions. Recently, I was invited to sail the 51’ Swan Beawolf owned by Swede Hakan Bille in the Corinthian Yacht Club’s Friday night beer can race which was followed by a wonderful dinner at the Club. That was lots of fun. Beautiful boat, with electric winches. We were joking that our fingers were getting cramped pushing the button after the four tacks we made going upwind.

The crew onboard Beawolf included Paul Cayard, Paul & Val Erickson, Nick Atkeson and Andrew Houghton). Together we managed to even win a trophy! That was the best part of the evening for me (I love winning!). I even got to steer half the race when Cayard turned her over to me after rounding the weather mark. Good times!

After a long night lurking around in undisclosed locations in Larkspur, I was also invited to crew aboard the TP52 “Flash” which Cayard is running the campaign for two regattas this summer, the Transpac and St.FYC Big Boat Series. What a neat experience, with lots of grinding. I haven’t spent tons of time sailing on big grand prix boats but it has really caught my attention. There is something to be said for ripping around San Francisco Bay in 17kts of breeze, doing 15kts with this massive kite up! We were looking at new sails designed by Quantum that day, by the end of the day my shoulders and arms felt numb!

The Baxter Bowl in Southern California is the next Star regatta on my agenda. It will be good to get back in the boat with Paul, to see a few old friends as well as to make a few new ones.

Austin

Finn racing at Bay Waveland YC

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:21:03 GMT

It’s been a very long day! I found out yesterday that there was a Finn regatta this weekend hosted by Bay Waveland YC (it’s actually opening day at the club). So I had a look at the weather, pack up my Finn and headed over for a day on the open water. Just me and my Finn with no crew to yell at!

The day was perfect, Southerly breeze 10-15 kts with about 12 Finns racing 80 degrees. Let me back up a few steps, I haven’t sailed my Finn for a month or two and before that it was in moth balls for roughly a year while I focused on the Star boat.

So rusty is a massive under statement. I purchased a Finn mast from Kiwi Sailor Dan Salter and matching sails. It makes such a huge difference when you have proper gear. I had good pace upwind, but got tangled up at the weather mark in a crossing situation that I would call marginal but I did my 720 penalty turn, so instead of leading around the first weather mark, I was about 10th after the herd went ripping by me, see previous sentence, speed was good I managed to battle back and finish the race 2nd.

So happy with my ability to battle back in trying conditions but gave up a point in the series. The second race saw the pin favored (as in the first race, but the r/c didn’t move the axis and the breeze was fairly consistent) I had a decent start about 5 boats up from the pin, had nice speed upwind and made it to the weather mark overlapped for 2nd and this is where things went ugly… While after the offset I was the inside boat and I wanted to soak low to get some gauge on the boat to weather and get some clear water. Well it worked better on paper than in realty I rolled the boat a bit to hard and rolled myself right out of the boat, massive death roll.

OK so now that I have come to the realization that my boat is nearly upside down with the boom still in the air and sailing away from my upside down it became shockingly clear that wow hoss I have never capsized in my Finn before how do I right this thing? At this point the center board was nearly all the way inside the center board trunk in the down wind position, it’s getting more ugly by the second. Then James Hunter who rounded the weather mark asked if I was ok and I said I have no idea how to right this thing. Now here comes the cool part. He actually stopped to help me out finally after getting the tip of the mast unstuck from the bottom of Bay St. Louis. Soon I was right side up with mud all over my gear and the rest of the fleet nowhere in sight so I decided to head for the barn.

It took about 2.5 hours to clean up the yard sale I had out there. It’s amazing how mud gets everywhere, just plain nasty. I hear there are a few more races tomorrow we shall see how it goes.

Later!

Western Hemisphere Champions!

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:46:35 GMT

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

Bacardi Cup, Miami

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:50:20 GMT

It’s been almost seven months since I was in a Star boat. Given the last 3+ years of full time campaigning I was really crispy, tired and burned out….and wondered if I would ever hop back in the boat.

Then I got the call. “Hoss, it’s Boss. We’re going sailing,” said Paul (Cayard).

My first thought was ‘Gee, I hope I am out of this cast (post knee surgery) in time to make the Bacardi Cup!’ To make a long story longer, I rehabbed my knee five days a week. Once I was cleared to sail by Dr. James Andrews, I made the call to Paul telling him that ‘the Eagle was ready for take off!’. Truthfully, I thought I was cleared too early by the doctor, but last time I checked I didn’t have an MD at the end of my name.

My Dad and Paul drove together from San Francisco (man they have some good stories!!) towing Paul’s Star. They stopped in Mississippi for three days where they tried out far too many waffle houses and we did some training out of the Pass Christian Yacht Club. Then the three of us road tripped together for the last 800 miles to Miami.

At one point my old man was driving and forgot to pull into the toll booth lane (apparently he thought we had a sun pass on the Florida turnpike – note that none of us live in Florida). So the cameras started to flash and proceeded to record every license plate from the Star trailer to the front and back of the big Dodge Ram. We decided that at the next toll booth we would fess up and it turned out that this was a good move especially when the traffic is full on!

We have been here for one week now and I am having the time of my life. The weather is fantastic, the wind is perfect and the water is warm. I really like sailing with Paul. The guy is amazing on the tiller. Unfortunately, I am very rusty having been out of the game for seven months, but thus far we have improved every race so the trend looks promising.

We have completed four races and have two remaining, we are in 3rd place overall with about 65 boats competing for the Bacardi Cup.

Yesterday we had a great day. We finished the race 5th. We had an unbelievable start at the pin with Peter Bromby/Magnus Lilijhdal and traded tacks up most of the beat. I have to take my hat off to Peter and Magnus they are sailing a great regatta.

Truthfully, after being away with my knee surgery/therapy I didn’t know if I wanted to come back and go again but being here with Paul and the boys makes me reconsider…..besides these are my good friends so what else would I do?

Two more races to go then back to Mississippi for the Spring Championships sailed out of PCYC.

Austin

Bacardi Cup Begins!

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:13:31 GMT

It’s great to be back on the water…and sailing with my buddy Paul Cayard at the 82nd edition of the Bacardi Cup. Today was our first day of racing and we did pretty well, finishing 11th among the fleet of 65 Stars.

We’ve been training in Pass Christian for the last week and are looking forward to racing here on Biscayne Bay for the next couple of days.

We’ll keep you posted.

Austin

Update for 2009

sperrya@mac.com (Austin Sperry) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:17:43 GMT

Where do I begin? It’s been about 5 months since I updated my website and lots has happened since the last day of the Olympics.

Sally and I flew to Hong Kong a few days after the last race. We skipped the closing ceremony in Beijing and opted for a quick trip to see the sights in HK. The trip was awesome and I highly recommend it. We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel and all I can say is – 10 stars with the best service!

Only days after Sally and I returned from the Games we pack up all of our worldly possessions and evacuated from Hurricane Gustav! God, I love hurricanes…. No damage but lots of wasted time and energy and money.

Hans Wallen, Steve Erickson and ROOODDDDDNNNEEYYY Hagebols all said I might fall into a bit of depression after the Games were over. I never believed them until I got home and it happened to me. It was rough. For so long I had had a regimented schedule with training and travel and suddenly it was over. If you have ever experienced this you will know what I mean but it’s very hard to explain. I just had a hard time to motivate myself to do anything. My jet setting lifestyle, the past three years sailing around the globe, hanging with my best friends was over for the short term – until I figured out my next move. Luckily, I had been preparing for this long ago. I knew it would all end sooner or later and I positioned myself for my next deal.

Sally and I have actually formed a new company called Pizza South, LLC. We own and operate Fregene’s Italian Pizzeria under this company. We have been open about a month and it’s been nothing but a raving success! We have the best pizza on this planet and I am not just saying this because I am the owner. It is literally a mouth changing experience. Thin crust gourmet pizza, there is nothing better.

I am also finally able to help in the store. I am recovering from knee surgery that I had five weeks ago. I had a few loose bones in my knee that were tearing my patella tendon in half so thankfully the US Sailing Team Alpha Graphics has a relationship with Dr. James Andrews (world renowned orthopedic surgeon) who performed the surgery and I just got off the crutches about a week ago. I do two hours of rehab a day and last week we had a big step forward. I was able to ride the stationary bike for five minutes.. Like I said, it’s the small things that make me happy!!

So here we are still living in Gulfport. Proud owners of a new Fregene’s Pizzeria and just crushing it! Things are going well, my development/management company is going fantastic and I was just accepted to college, I enjoy learning and going back starting this summer!

I am slowly adjusting to my new lifestyle but I am fighting it, I miss my friends and miss the competition.

My motivation for 2012 is starting to knock…

Austin

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