Dane Sperry 2008

	Home News and Interviews Qingdao China Updates Los Angeles Olympic Trials Story Los Angeles Updates As It Took Place U.S Sailing Article The Olympic Trinity Times-Picayune Article Sun Herald Article Photo Gallery Bacardi Rolex Cascais Portugal Qingdao China The LA Victory!				Update Qingdao China 8-16-2007: Just a little update on what's happening over here at the Pre-Olympics Day 1 The first day of racing was suspended due to lack of wind. I will give the R/C credit they kept us on shore! The Tornado class (whom we share the same race course with, at different times) had to sit out on the water most of the day before being sent in for the afternoon. Day 2 Race 1 Course W2 (4 legs finish downwind) 8kts, huge swells, lots of chop Yesterday we had 2 good races. The breeze was out of a direction of 160. The tide was Ebbing to the east at about 2.5 kts. Basically you could sail past the R/C boat on port for 200 yards with a minute to go, tack back to starboard and with the current you could time a perfect boat end start. We managed to get off the line and had really good upwind speed we rounded the weather mark in 5th overlapped with Ian Percy and Bart Simpson (GBR) there was about 6 of us that had a nice jump on the fleet and it went back and fourth and we finished the race 6th. Good start to a long wacky regatta! Race 2 Again race started in a wind direction of 160 and a decreasing breeze of about 6kts. With the left over waves and chop this was going to be an interesting race. We got an average start, Peter Bromby & Lee White of Bermuda did a nice job of shutting us out of a boat start, we were a little late but were able to tack immediately onto starboard tack. We held on a long port tack with about 4 boats going to the right and the fleet going to the left. We again have really good boat speed upwind the left side paid up the first beat but we were able to round the top mark 4th. Again not much changed up the next 2 legs, swaping tacks with Hammish Pepper & Tiny Williams (NZL) and Percy (GBR) by the 2nd upwind leg the 4 of us had a HUGE lead on the others, we must of rounded 30 seconds in front of the others.. Well this is where things get interesting.. Down the last run to the finish, the breeze went really light Percy (GBR) and US stayed on Starboard gybe, well this didn't pay. The teams that were 700 yards behind us gybed at the top mark (BRA) Robert Schideit was so far behind I couldn't read his sail numbers just to give you guys and idea how far ahead the top 6 boats were... Well BRA finished the race in 2nd place... USA finished 10th percy finished 12th..... We have 16 points and today we have 2 more scheduled races. Will be interesting weather team is calling for less wind than yesterday, and 70% chance were going to get rained on out there.... All in all its been a great learning experience here in China training where the Olympics will be in 1 year and sailing with the best guys in the world..... The best part about this deal is our US Olympic Trials will be the exact format. We will be ready! I will let you guys know what happens after todays 2 races! Austin Update Qingdao China 8-21-2007: I hope everyone is doing well! Here are some pictures of yesterday's racing. A typical day goes as follows here in China: 7:00am wake up 7:30am check scale (make sure I am under weight or I go to the gym) 9:00am catch bus to venue to make official weigh in (dont eat or drink anything before this 9am weigh in) 9:15am catch taxi back to hotel after weigh in for breakfast 10:00am catch bus back to venue after breakfast 12:00pm Schedule start if there is any wind.... (yesterday we stayed on the dock until 4pm, race 1 started at 5:45pm) Towed home at 7pm in the dark Bus back to hotel 7:45pm Dinner 8:15pm Bed 9pm... ground hog day, everyday...... The best star sailors in the world are here and it has made for very close racing. It was a long day yesterday, waiting for the wind.. We finally got off the dock at 4pm, for a start time of 5:30pm we finished 7th in the race. We are in 9th place overall just a few points from 6th... We have 3 races scheduled today (wishful thinking) I just read the weather report from Jennifer Lilly (the US sailing teams meteorologist) it looks marginal at best today.. I am hearing rumors that if we get in at least 2 races today that the medal race will be held tomorrow as scheduled... stand by for that. All in all its been a great experience, the venue is amazing the locals are nice but the sailing is henious... gotta go catch the bus to weigh in Austin Update Qingdao China 8-24-2007: Hello everyone. Well after 26 hours of traveling I finally made it home! It's good to be home. We left China early because our regatta was over due to the fact that we did not make the medal race (final 10 boats) We finished 12th overall. It was a great learning experience, we learned some valuable lessons that even the best coaching in the world cannot teach you. There is nothing more important in this game than experience, it was very evident over this past few weeks. I look around at the olympic regatta and in our class (star) most every competitor has either been to the olympics before, won a medal and has won a world championship in most cases more than once. Basically we go out and compete with the Tiger Woods of sailing every time we leave the dock, funny thing is that instead of 1 Tiger, there are about 8 teams that are that good. Robert Schedit of Brazil, won the regatta. Robert is new to the star class, he is not new to winning. Prior to sailing the star boat Robert dominated the single handed Laser class, winning 8 world championships, 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal, oh by the way he just won the star world championship last month (and finished 2nd at the star worlds last year) needless to say this guy is not human.. The last day of racing was moving day for JD and I, We were in 9th place overall and with 2 good races left would could move up to 5th. Well on the first race of the day I made a call that sunk the ship. With 3 seconds to go JD and I set up about 3 lengths up from the Pin boat, I saw the Race Committee looking up the line I figured we had another length togo and told JD to go for it, well I was wrong and we were over early and had to gybe out and round the pin boat and star over while the rest of the fleet is racing up the beat to the first mark. The race only got worse from there... We actually caught up at the top mark and rounded 7th, good considering we had to restart. But the downwind was a killer for us, it seemed no matter where we went on the race track it was the wrong way and we lost to the other side, maybe we were just off the pace, still replaying what went wrong in my mind. The second race of the day wasn't much better and in the end we missed the top ten by 3 points... Everybody says go into the Olympics and treat it like it's another regatta. I have news for you people, it's not like every other regatta. Your half way around the world, in a communist country, people don't speak your language, worrying about eating the wrong food and getting sidelined with food poisoning Totally out of your normal element, movie cameras, the venue, the police escort bus rides to and from the venue, the heat and humidity, the sitting around waiting for wind, not seeing your family for over a month, all this stuff starts to take its toll mentally. At the end of the day the teams that can get past this and focus on sailing are the teams that will win, period. Robert Schedit rounded most weather marks in 10-12th position he would pick boats up every leg and would have a shot at winning most races, this is how you win regattas, he seems to have the model down better than anyone else right now. At the end of the day there are 10-12 boats that could win this regatta, its about peaking at the right moment and being comfortable with your surroundings. Next up for JD and I are the US Olympic Trials in October (3rd-14th) it;s actually very simple you win the trials and you go to the Olympics. It's not going to be easy but JD and I have consistently beaten every American and every regatta lately. I wanted to thank you guys for keeping up with the Olympic Rat race, I enjoy reading your feedback. Back to the California for the next month and a half... I will keep everyone posted! Austin

Dane -Sperry - 2008 - Gulfport, MS 39507

email: Austin Sperry