Brandon Davis has competed three times in the race to Alaska with Team Turn Point Design. The first year he barely made it to the start line as he and his team were frantically finishing the boat the night before the race. Luckily everything held together for the crossing to Victoria where the team placed 4th. Only to have to withdraw a day into the second leg. The next year Team Turn Point Design regrouped and made it to Ketchikan in just over 5 days. Shannon Davis has been a sailor all her life and was first mate aboard their 50 foot trimaran for 5 years as they ran crewed sailing tours in the Salish Sea. They are hoping to share their passion for sailing these waters with their 9 year old daughter Tayla.
Skate 15 is a smaller version of a Mini Transat race boat. It is meant to be an easy to build plywood boat kit that lets its owners play with some tech borrowed from the latest offshore monohulls- lightweight construction, extreme beam, broad planing sections aft, twin foils, rotating wing mast, and water ballast. Hidden inside the cabin is a spacious (for a little boat) double berth under the cockpit sole and a kids size v-berth up forward. The extreme beam makes it a comfortable boat to spend the night on at anchor or tied to a dock.
Dave’s experience as a sailor is limited to half-remembered tips from summer camps of his youth, so with that in mind it is probably a good idea that he is not bringing a sailboat. Apparently content to row the entire course, he’s secretly hoping to glean as much sailing and coastal exploration knowledge from the formidable collective experience of the rest of the rogues, so that he’ll be ready to join the sailing intelligentsia by the time his shoulders eventually give out.
Rob Hodge is a ship-fitter in Seattle:
Our first Raid love story, these two met as teenagers on the final Shipyard Raid, in competing Sea Scout boats. Having done this course already, in a longboat and a skin on frame umiak, these two are back as husband and wife, ready to take on the fleet.
Tor and Heidi have been sailing together since 1989 on Rainbow Chaser a Tbird. Tor grew up drifting down the Seymour River then exploring about Deep Cove and the Arm. Heidi also spent time making and drifting in rafts on the Cowichan river, later fish guiding for 7 summers near Stuart Island. Both spent vacations on wind, ice & power boats, exploring rivers & coasts East, West, North & South. 
Raced in R2AK 2016 with my good friend Brian Croll as Team Nordica. We had a blast sailing in my little Nordica 16 but the doldrums of that year took their toll on us. We retired from the race just south of Cape Caution, it was a tough decision but the right one. Not finishing the race was something I thought about everyday after. R2AK 2017 came but this time I entered solo and finished in a Craigslist Bomber Windrider 17. R2AK The Barefoot Raid excites the hell out of me, it’s a hall pass to go goof around in boats. The camaraderie of fellow racers and the challenges of dealing with situations like when your sailing and something taps your shoulder and you realize its your shroud that came undone, you know…that stuff.
Heather and Dan have been sailing small wooden boats up and down the coast since 2003 and have been dinghy sailors since 1969. As participants in stages 1 and 2 of the 2015 R2AK, Heather and dan decided they had better ways to spend the next 2-3 weeks of their summer than bashing into gale force headwinds, and sensibly turned around and went downwind instead.