Two Brothers, Two Antrim Designs — One Pac Cup Showdown

“We’re racing for pink slips,” said Jim Partridge of the upcoming Pacific Cup, where he’ll be sailing against his older brother, Cree. “Whoever wins gets the other guy’s boat,” Jim added, only half serious — we think.

The competition between the Partridge brothers will see them going head to head in their Jim Antrim-designed custom boats, both of which were built at Berkeley Marine Center. Cree, who owns BMC, will be sailing Glass Slipper, officially described as a boatbuilder’s 40-ft carbon fiber sled, born from the same hull plug as the Antrim-designed Class 40 California Condor. “This boat is a culmination of everything that I’ve ever done in the past,” Cree, 77, said of Glass Slipper.

Jim Partridge, 75, will be sailing Rapid Transit, his 49-ft canting-keel racer with “lots of carbon in the hull,” according to Antrim. “Cree is 9.5 feet shorter — I’ve got the waterline, that’s why we’re going to beat him across the channel,” said Jim. Not only will two Antrim designs and two brothers be facing off against each other, but Jim Antrim himself will serve as navigator aboard Glass Slipper.

“I wish I could be on both boats,” Antrim said of the Pac Cup. We asked him if he had any predictions for the race, and he was kind enough to indulge us.

“I think Rapid Transit will get to Hawaii first. (It had better!) As to who wins on corrected time … I frankly think both boats have a bad rating. I think we might correct better because Rapid Transit is more complicated with its canting keel, and you need more high-end people to sail it.” (The always cagey Jim Partridge joked, “Cree stole some of my crew.”)

The unique brotherly competition in this year’s Pac Cup represents a kind of apex in West Coast sailing: Decades of achievement in high-level design (via Jim Antrim), boatbuilding (via Cree Partridge), and racing will be on display on the more than 2,300-mile course from San Francisco to Hawaii.

Originally from the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles, the Partridge brothers grew up surrounded by boats. “The three of us got together and bought a boat when we were young kids — a Sabot. And wow, it just kept going from there,” Cree told us in mid-June, as Glass Slipper was on the hard in preparation for the Pac Cup. “We had our family fishing boat, and on both sides of the fishing boat at the marina were sailboats. So anytime they were going out, they would grab one of us ‘meatheads’, and we gladly did it. That’s how it all started.”

Cree knew that he wanted to make boats, he said, “since I was a little kid building boats in my parents’ front yard with penny nails and old shingles and things that I could grab from construction sites. I was always, always, always interested in building.”

We’ve spoken with Cree Partridge numerous times over the past several years on subjects ranging from green hydrogen powering boats, unique vessels built at BMC, the past, present and future of Berkeley Marina, and boats, sailing, and just being on the water. Cree has a soft, deep voice and a big, white mustache. He speaks thoughtfully about all things. He has sailed and raced all over the world. He has built dozens of boats. This might sound a little over the top, but he oozes knowledge, experience, and passion, but in a calm, unassuming way.

Read the rest of Cree and Jim Partridge’s sailing story and Pacific Cup rivalry in Latitude 38’s July issue: Brotherly Love in the Pac Cup.