SEASON CHAMPIONS, PART III Solo Dinghy El Toro Sr.
Dinghy Vanguard 15
3-Person Keelboat Team Furrari — Wabbit
Fred Paxton RYC
Jim Barkow/Mallory McCollum
Pete/Angie Rowland Richmond YC
The Paxton family has sailing in their blood. Fred is the son of Dave, brother of Greg and father of Will — all of whom were/are renowned big boat sailors. But while they all 'moved up', Fred reversed course about 15 years ago. "In the late '80s, I was racing a Ranger 23 and taking Will to junior sailing classes at Richmond," he recalls. "Basically, I just got tired of putting him in an El Toro and then sitting ashore." So he started sailing 'Toros himself, found it to be loads of fun and, well, the Ranger was soon sold. Since the dissolution of SBRA, the various dinghy classes have had to put together their own programs. The 'Toro guys basically adopted the Moore 24 'Roadmaster' series, which takes them to various lakes and reservoirs through the season, in addition to racing in more protected areas of the Bay. Their season consists of four pursuit regattas and three round-the-buoys events, with 4-6 races a day at most venues. Fred won all of them except for the Bullship (his throwout) and a third at Whiskeytown. Paxton, who 'blends chemicals' for a living, sometimes sails with son Will on the TransPac 52 Flash, or with Andy Hall (his boss) on the lovely Wylie Gemini Twin Encore. But one of the highlights of his '05 season found him on the other side of the starting line — he and some 35 other 'Toreadors' turned out to run the race committee, at all three courses, in last spring's Big Daddy Regatta.
Jim grew up sailing on small lakes in Wisconsin. If you think that's not much preparation for dinghy sailing in Northern California, we might mention that some of the boys he grew up racing against were named Melges, and that Jim's sister Sally is a world champion Yngling sailor and current contender for Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Jim got his current boat in 2001. Soon after, he hooked up with sailing instructor Mallory McCollum. "She's one of the best crews I've ever had or known," says Jim, who makes an unusual dual living — one in the food industry, one doing business development for search engines. Jim and Mallory (and occasional fill-in crew) have moved steadily up the ranks since. The combination of four years in the boat and a new set of sails finally made the winning difference in 2005. "I knew it was going to be a good year when we came off the line at the PCCs (in May) with Adam Lowry on one side and Kevin Richards on the other — and we were just faster," he says. They went on to win that 13-race, 1-throwout series, too — and took second in the hotly contested V-15 Thursday Night series. The V-15 season schedule is pretty intense — 71 scheduled races over seven summer/fall weekends, and to qualify for the season, you must race at least half of them. In what spare time he can find, Jim can also be found crewing on Kristen Lane's J/105 Brick House.
For Pete and his crew — wife Angie Rowland and O.J. Olson — the main goal of 2005 was to win the Wabbit Nationals, held in Santa Cruz in early August. That they did, and were on enough of a roll to ice the cake with a season championship in this active class. With 'only' 10 years of Wabbit sailing under his belt, Pete is still considered a relative newbie in this homegrown Bay Area fleet. (Designed by Tom Wylie, the Wabbit went into production in 1981, and many vets have been racing for over 20 years.) "I'd have to say consistency was our strong suit," says Rowland, a computer consultant. "We knew our jobs and concentrated on doing them well." "'O', our trap guy and downwind tactician, gets the MVP for raising the nuances of sailing a Wabbit to an art form. Hands down, he's the best trap guy in the fleet. Angie gets the 'Heisman' for maintaining the good communication we have on the boat. It's not easy managing the Jekyll-and-Hyde situation of your helmsman also being your husband!" Pete also noted that they could not have won without the support of the Secret Wabbit Underground (aka the 'Furringe'), but if he divulged what that was, he would have had to kill us. 2005 may have been Furrari's swan song. Although they'll be back racing in '06, much of Pete and Angie's energy will go toward preparing a recently purchased Irwin 39 for cruising.
2) Art Lange; 3) Gordie Nash. (20 boats). (El Toro Jr winner: David Liebenberg)
2) Holt Condon/Katie Shuman; 3) Adam and Mara Lowry. (20-25 boats)
2) Mr. McGregor, Kim Desenberg; 3) Keala, Ron Tostenson. (10 boats)
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Latitude 38
• January, 2006
