‘Motorcycle Irene’ Three-peats at Express 27 Nationals and Looks To Grow the Fleet
The 2025 Express 27 National Championship was sailed from October 3 through 5 on the Berkeley Circle. Nineteen boats showed up to compete for the national title at the regatta, hosted by Encinal Yacht Club (EYC). The championship was won by a familiar name: Motorcycle Irene (RYC), with Will Paxton at the helm. The win marked a Nationals three-peat for the team.
Racing began on Friday with a distance race out to Point Bonita and back down to the Oakland-Alameda Estuary. All competitors were unfortunately scored TLE-1, as the 5:00 p.m. time limit hit before any boats could cross the finish line. From there, Motorcycle Irene dominated in champagne sailing conditions on Saturday and Sunday. Paxton and team won all five remaining races (though recording a 20% Z-flag penalty in race two) to finish with 10 points.
Behind the national champions in second place was Katie Cornetta’s team aboard Freaks on a Leash (RYC) with 17 points. After two fifth-place finishes to start the day on Saturday, Cornetta and team finished second in the final three races of the regatta in order to jump Brendan Busch’s Get Happy!! (RYC) for second place. Busch finished with 21 points. In fourth place and winning the Corinthian National Championship (highest-finishing boat without a World Sailing Category 3 sailor on board) was John and Michael Rivlin’s Peaches (StYFC).
“I started sailing that boat when I was still in high school.” Paxton tells us of Motorcycle Irene’s history. “There are two couples on the boat, [2024 Olympian] David Liebenberg and my cousin Julia. Jeane Rodgers and I have been together for 10-plus years. My buddy John Donovan filled out the last spot on the boat. We always joke that you need a medal for sailing with two couples.”
“Julia and I take turns driving. She drove last year. This year was my turn. Jeane had never sailed a day in her life before meeting me, but she’s a competitor and athlete in other sports. She’s had the training from great San Francisco Bay sailors, and is now a multiple-time national champion on the bow.”
“The best thing about our team is that it’s a family team, and another fun fact is that our friend John Donovan was on the boat when we won our first Nationals in 1999. It’s a great group of people.”
“We have a really healthy fleet in Lake Tahoe, which is almost a quarter of the fleet,” Paxton says, commenting on the state of the Express 27 fleet. “They drive back and forth between Richmond in the winter and Tahoe in the summer. A highlight of the regatta was fabulous turnout. A question for every fleet is maintaining participation. We’re going to put on another clinic at the start of the spring to try and keep interest high. It seems to be more of a struggle to get people to do buoy racing in the summer breeze. We’re going to work on our social media presence.”
“The boat is a beautiful boat. We take the family camping; you can race it to Hawaii. It’s a great doublehanded racing boat, so we get a lot of participation with the SSS. Those are some of our best-attended races other than nationals. [G]etting people to come to buoy races more should be a focus of ours.”
You can find the full results from the 2025 Express 27 National Championship here.
Seeing boats steal wind from competitors and surf the last waves to the finish was a real treat; the race was fierce but the fleet’s camaraderie shone. I enjoyed being part of the race committee for such a great race!