Ep 307 Andrew "Sailing Dog" Palfrey - International Yachtsman & High Performance Coach

My special guest for this episode is international professional yachtsman and coach Andrew Palfrey or "Dog" to his closest friends and competitors on the race track across the world.

He is a four-time World Championship winner in the highly competitive Etchells
and 5.5 Metre classes. He has also won several National and State Championship titles
in Australia, the UK and the USA across a range of classes.​

Having started sailing in Melbourne, Australia where we first met, Andrew graduated from the cadet-dinghy class to one-design keelboats such as J24's in the early 1980’s. After several years of competing at an international level, he embarked on eleven years of Olympic class
campaigning. Firstly in the Soling class, with Cameron Miles and James Mayo. Then
moving to the Star Class for eight years, crewing with Iain Murray winning the right to represent Australia at the 2008 Olympics.​

Since retiring from Olympic level sailing after the 2008 Olympic Games, he returned to the Etchells class, accepting a position with iconic sailing figure John Bertrand, alongside five time Olympic medallist, Sir Ben Ainslie. The following year, as Ben’s America’s Cup commitments increased, they were joined by Tom Slingsby (Olympic Gold Medallist and Aussie Sail GP skipper) where they won the 2010 World Championship in Howth, Ireland. Since then Andrew has continued to sail and coach at the highest level with people such as Peter Duncan and Peter Morton and in a variety of yachts and this year amongst other things is coaching a team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

In the podcast we discuss turning your hobby into a profession, what high-performance leaders do consistently, how to survive the ups and downs of competitive sport and the vital role of leadership in any successful endevour.