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Crew: Bill Stange and Darlene Stange
Hometown: Driftwood Key, WA
Vessel: Westsail 32
Class: The Wind Division
Get to know Team Hula
First thing first. Why race in WA360?
Because it’s there. Also, haha, you don’t believe that a Westsail 32 can beat upwind through Deception Pass, so we have to prove you wrong!
We also have a bit of Hawaii fatigue, as we’ve sailed over and back 3 of the last 4 years. We are looking forward to sailing a lot in our home waters this summer, and the WA360 certainly helps us do that!
What’s your connection to these waters?
Bill grew up on Mercer Island and has been racing sailboats since the early 70’s
Darlene began sailing dinghys at UW in the early 90’s, and has raced on lots of Puget Sound races.
Defend your vessel choice for WA360. What makes it so cool and worthy?
Westsail 32: HULA’s super power stems from her having a full keel. We do not have to worry about weeds hanging up on the keel or the rudder. Crab pots? Pffft, no problem!
Hula is set up for singlehanding and is very easy to steer, trim, and tack.
What are your adventure qualifications for WA360? What makes you (y’all) cool and capable?
We together circumnavigated Vancouver Island, Bill rowed an El Toro in the 70/48, and we have won the Race to the Straits overall twice. We are both licensed Merchant Mariner credentialed captains. We have a bunch of dinghys at our place that we sail a lot. Bill has done three Singlehanded Transpacs, two on Hula and one on his Olson 30. Darlene has 7 Pacific crossings to her credit.
What is going to break?
The Westsail 32 elapsed time record!! Haha!
Having sailed to Hawaii 3 of the last 4 years, I’m pretty sure all the big parts are good to go. The electronics are never a guarantee, but we have spares, and racing keelboats on Puget Sound in the early 70’s, all we had were paper charts, a course plotter, a hand bearing compass and a good dose of common sense. They will all be aboard for the WA360. We will have a liferaft, and a tested emergency drogue steering system.