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Events Leading Up to the Games

June 15, 2012 in Team Sperry Blog

At the beginning of May we had a week off which was a great way to charge our batteries for the most challenging month of the spring season. We were to compete in the 470 World Championships May 10-19, then go on a US Sailing Team retreat in Lanzarote, Spain, and then head right to Portland, UK to train and race in our last event before the Olympics, Sail For the Gold.

While the conditions in Barcelona were not likely to be similar to those in Weymouth for the Olympics, we had been working on our starts and some technique of boat speed and we needed to have an honest assessment of where we were. The regatta started portentously: the wind was very light at 20 seconds before the start and a wave came through that bounced us off another boat. It was our foul and we spun a penalty turn. In that kind of wind, a 720 turn takes about 30 seconds and then trying to accelerate in the bad breeze of the fleet is even worse! The regatta started poorly. We almost got our feet back under us by battling back to the top 10 after the first gold fleet race, but then we began a spiral downwards. We wrote off the result of the regatta, but kept working on our starts and technique so that we would be stronger next time. Read the rest of this entry →

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Team 7 gives a recap of their time in Palma and how they spent their week off from sailing

April 17, 2012 in Team Sperry Blog

Team 7 – April 2012

At the end of March, Team 7 Match Race went back to Cadiz, Spain for a second spring training session with the Brits.  The breeze in Cadiz that week was outrageous—- with 20 – 30 knots everyday for six days.  We had some interesting moments. While planing downwind in 25 knots, the boat all of a sudden rounded up and broached. We were questioning Sally’s driving skills, but then understood when we saw most of the rudder floating next to the boat.  Our rudder had snapped off, and we had no steerage!  The next day, we witnessed an epic wipeout by Team Macgregor that resulted in Lucy getting 10 staples in her head. (She’s all good now – and the staples have been removed.)  Besides these couple of setbacks, our training was great. We really figured out all of our heavy air boat handling, and our downwind boat speed improved tremendously.

From Cadiz, we went to Palma to the Princess Sofia Regatta, the second ISAF World Cup regatta of 2012.  Our regatta started off well, but didn’t end up as we were hoping.  We had a great quarterfinals match up with Tamara Echegoyen from Spain, with her edging us out 3-1 to take the series and knock us into the 5-8 sailoffs.  We ended up 8th and while we were disappointed we knew we sailed a lot of solid races and it will only help us going forward. Read the rest of this entry →

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Paige Railey discusses her commitment to preparing for the biggest competition of her life

April 4, 2012 in Team Sperry Blog

Hola! I’m here in Palma de Mallorca, Spain getting ready to sail the Princess Sofia Regatta. I’ve been here for about a week training and I have learned so much. I can’t even describe how happy I am with my sailing. Compared to this time last year, I have improved so much. Luther and I have done a lot of training and I am so excited to see the results. This actually brings me to now…how I’m feeling going into this event: Completely motivated, pumped, focused etc.In January I sat down with Luther, Leandro, Chris, and Kenneth and completely committed my whole being for the Olympics. We talked about what we thought it would take to achieve my goals. Since that discussion I have based my whole life around what I can do to improve my body, mind, and sailing. I dedicate every day, minute, and second to my commitment to my dream. This is a huge reason as to why I am excited for this event. I am ready to learn new things and see my progression so I know what I need to work on for the future.

Please watch the results at:
http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/ Read the rest of this entry →

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Check out Evi Van Acker’s blog from her recent visit to Mallorca, Spain

April 3, 2012 in Team Sperry Blog

Hello from Mallorca!

Another very busy month has passed by. I completed two training camps with the Belgian youth team in Cadiz, South of Spain. Yet again, we were blessed with great sailing conditions: sunshine, blue skies and a variety of windspeed and directions. The good thing was that the seabreeze always came late afternoon so we could hit the gym in the morning and still have a rest before going on the water. I was moving around the go pro camera quite a lot in the boat and here is a cool shot from during the training: Check out my Sperry shoes!

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See how Nick Dempsey juggles time between his newborn baby and Olympics training

April 2, 2012 in Team Sperry Blog

There’s nothing like a new baby to add a bit of chaos to your life when you are preparing for an Olympics!

Oscar-Flynn George Dempsey was born at 5.15am on Wednesday 7 March, a little brother for our first son Thomas, who is three in June.

I had been scheduled to fly out to Spain for a period of training before the RS:X World Championships, which get underway inCadizon Thursday 22 March, two days before Oscar was born but delayed the trip to wait for his arrival. Read the rest of this entry →

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