← WA360 Home ← 2025 WA360 Teams
Crew: Ember Manfred, Drew Rowland, and Nels Oscar
Hometown: Asheville, NC
Vessel: 1970 Catalina 22
Class: The Wind Division
Get to know Team Tar Keels
First thing first. Why race in WA360?
Great excuse to get old friends together and enjoy some time on the water. Looking forward to honing sailing skills, problem solving, and getting some exercise along the way. We’ve always been DIYers who march to the beat of our own drum–the WA360 is our type of “regatta”.
What’s your connection to these waters?
Ember and Rameses (the boat) live in the Greater Seattle area.
Superpowers. Each crew member gets one. What are they and why?
Ember: Motivation
Drew: Intellect
Nels: Resourceful
Defend your vessel choice for WA360. What makes it so cool and worthy?
Rameses is basically a SR-71 Blackbird for the water. She is 22′ and 56-years old, boasting solid glass construction, a swing keel and timeless bathtubesque lines. Her name exudes speed; drawing inspiration from a pirate ship and a slayed college mascot. Becalmed in the Puget Sound, she will tow effortlessly behind a kayak.
What are your adventure qualifications for WA360? What makes you (y’all) cool and capable?
Years of getting in over our heads both in the outdoors and in various projects (dilapidated homes, cars, vessels, etc). Members of this team have walked across America, regularly fly airplanes, tie knots while balancing on large rocks, float down rivers, and have a working understanding of wind propulsion.
Jokes aside, we are safety conscious. High-risk hobbies require a culture of risk assessment and sound judgement. In addition to experience doing scary things, we have taken sailing , sea safety and first aid courses.
I’d like to think we are pretty good at breaking things, fixing them and having fun along the way.
What is going to break?
Hopefully not Nels’ bulging disc! Our tow-kayak’s Hobie drives are old and those proprietary cables are expensive… The Chinese solar panel and charge controller cost less than a tank of gas.
Don’t worry there are contingencies. Rameses has a stern mounted sculling oar. We have multiple fire suppression tools, some extra wire, and a hand-held VHF. Nels has whiskey and ibuprofen.
I’d like to think the important stuff including Rameses rigging, keel bolts, sails and rudder are in good shape.