NorCal Team at Quantum Key West Race Week

January 15, 2012

Bay Area sailor Skip Shapiro reports from Key West:

Here's a synopsis of our Farr 400 Team Premier NorCal entry for Key West Race Week:

As the team/boat name implies, most of the crew is from Northern California. Buzz Blackett and I are co-charterers and trading off races on the helm. We're both long-time Richmond YC members, El Toro sailors, RYC Junior Program instructors, and we both owned and raced Express 27s in the past. California Condor is Buzz's current boat.

California Condor, seen here at last year's Golden Gate Midwinters, is an Antrim Class 40. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Others on the crew from Northern California are:
Tom Paulling: He's doing bow and is also a RYC member. He often does bow on Condor.
Brent Draney: Brent's doing pit (halyards) and is a frequent crew member on Condor.
Matt Noble: Matt's the offside headsail trimmer and former RYC junior sailor. He's currently a pro sailor and has raced on Speedboat (now Rambler) and Aussie 18s, and last year was a member of the American Offshore Sailing Team.
Malcolm Park: Malcolm's the mainsail trimmer and a pro sailor with extensive grand prix sailing and boat program management experience. He trimmed main and managed the racing program for Rosebud, both the TPC 65 and the TP 52, and has raced many other boats including Melges 24, Mumm 30, and Farr 40.

Rounding out the rest of the crew are two Southern Californians and a Floridian:
Kevin Miller: Kevin is the tactician, and he manages the North Sails office in Ventura. Kevin and Malcolm have raced a lot together.
Garrett Baum: Garrett is the grinder. He's an amateur, an active Laser sailor, and is also from Ventura.
Ethan Bixby: Ethan is the upwind headsail trimmer. He manages the North Sails office in Tampa/St. Pete and is well known as top-notch 505 sailor.

The Farr 400 is new class; seven boats have been built so far and five are racing at Key West Race Week. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first regatta to have more than one Farr 400 racing. We're racing as a one design class for the first time!

The boat is a very responsive 38.5" sprit boat, something like a bigger version of the Melges 32. Check out www.farr400.com.

The boat we have chartered raced Rolex Big Boat Series and the Great Pumpkin Regatta this fall - with Malcolm on main trim - before being shipped back to Florida. In fact, it was at the Great Pumpkin that Malcolm told me the boat was available to charter at Key West Race Week, and soon after proposing a co-charter to Buzz, we began pursuing it in earnest.

Skip Shapiro sailing his El Toro in the 2010 Bullship. He won the race in 2009. ©2010 norcalsailing.com

Neither of us has raced Key West Race Week before, but we both have harbored a desire to do it for a while; and here we are! We had our first practice Thursday, which went well considering only Malcolm and Kevin have any Farr 400 experience. Racing begins Monday.

- Skip Shapiro, Team Premier NorCal

For more, see www.premiere-racing.com.

Update on January 16: Team Premier NorCal is in second place after two races. Check out this video: at 6:23 minutes in you'll see the NorCal Farr 400 ahead of Red. (8:28 total running time.) Cumulative results are here.