← WA360 Home ← 2025 WA360 Teams
Crew: William Quigley, David Wise, Daniel Hill, Akiko Onozuka, and Mich Beaulieu
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Vessel: Farrier 32
Class: The Wind Division
Connect: Facebook
Get to know Team Narwhal
First thing first. Why race in WA360?
Why? Because we’re gluttons for punishment. Also, we’re gluttons for boat punishment. WA360 and R2AK are a great way to find out how much your boat and your body and your soul can take. And then go past that.
What’s your connection to these waters?
While our spirit whale the narwhal has never been sighted in the Salish Sea, we nevertheless can hope, and dream. Someday.
Superpowers. Each crew member gets one. What are they and why?
Dan H: WA360 and R2AK veteran. Can fix anything. The MacGyver of our crew (which tells you a lot about our average crew age).
David W: as we learned in the last WA360, when we discovered that our last-minute pedal drive had the seat mounted way too close to the pedals, Dave (5’5″) has the ability to pedal for hours and hours and hours. And hours.
Mich B: our tactician and navigator. He’s one of those guys who, when he’s on your boat, you might win a race. When he’s not on the boat, you’re not gonna win.
Akiko O: like a 2-stroke outboard, Akiko has the highest power to weight ratio of any WA360 crew, on any boat.
William Q: the money guy. He does nothing but drink beer and shout at the crew, “Are you trying to lose?”
Defend your vessel choice for WA360. What makes it so cool and worthy?
One might think our choice of boat questionable, since a) it was built by Quigley and b) we have the dubious distinction of being the first boat to retire in any R2AK, ever.* However, Tatiana has returned stronger, faster, and with twice as many spreaders. That’s right. We had 2 spreaders, now we have 4. That’s double the spreader count, if you do the math. We also have a bulletproof carbon fiber mast from Wright Yachts/Corsair. And I mean literally bulletproof. The carbon is 7/16″ thick.
*based on generative AI analysis, we’re pretty sure that Team B-Team and Team Razzle Dazzle were still upright and moving in the general direction of Victoria when our mast snapped like a twig, approximately 33 minutes after the start of 2022 R2AK Leg 1.
What are your adventure qualifications for WA360? What makes you (y’all) cool and capable?
Too many R2AKs to count.
Exactly one WA360 for more than half of the crew.
The other (almost) half has raced within spitting distance of the Iranian Navy. For real.
What is going to break?
Please please please baby Jesus not our mast. Amen.