BLACK BAZA
CUSTOM KER 42
Morgan Yachting was commissioned to oversea the construction and commissioning of a Custom 42' race yacht, Black Baza, to compete in Asia. The team's goals and the vision from 2 fantastic owners gave Wade the latitude to create something extraordinary. She had a huge first season, winning not only the Hong Kong Vietnam and the Rolex China sea race overall in the same year, a feat never achieved before but also winning the overall Asian yachting Grand Prix. Even though the project achieved all of it's ambitious goals in its first season, that wasn't enough for this team. Wade oversaw a keel and sail plan optimisation in the off season that made her even faster. Morgan Yachting continued to support the team, both racing and off the water, with its major logistical challenge of travelling 10,000 miles per season and the maintenance in parallel. Black Baza followed up with the same record the 2nd season, She held all 4 category 1 races in Asia over the 2 years on IRC and 2 x Asian grand Prix wins. A record unlikely to be repeated. A special program!
SCROLL DOWN TO HEAR FROM CO-OWNERS, ANTHONY AND STEVE ...
ANTHONY ROOT AND STEVE MANNING: CO-OWNERS OF BLACK BAZA CUSTOM BUILT 42’ KER IRC RACER, HONG KONG
Project Manager:
“From 2013 through 2017, Steve and I retained Wade Morgan to be project manager and team manager of our professional offshore and inshore sailboat racing program for our custom designed IRC racing yacht called “Black Baza.”
Without question, Wade is one of the most exceptional, capable and experienced professional racing sailboat project managers and team managers in the international sailing community. He has a unique combination of experience and skill that was critical to the success of our program.
Wade’s involvement was crucial at every stage of the design, build and racing program. Wade played a key role in selecting and training team members, preparing the boat, maintaining the boat and supervising the team throughout each race. The boat won the Asia Grand Prix race circuit (10 regattas in 9 countries around Asia each year) in 2016 and 2017. Only one boat out of several hundred win this challenging prize each year. Winning this prize two years in a row is extraordinary. The boat won every offshore race in Asia. It is the only boat in history to hold all offshore 1st overall trophies in the four bi-annual offshore races run out of Hong Kong.
Many of the top professional racers and designers in the world reviewed our boat and visited our boat. Without exception, they characterized the quality of the boat’s design and condition as extraordinary and attributed those characteristics to the role that Wade played at every level of the program.
Both Steve and I firmly believe that there isn’t any other person in the international sailing community who encapsulates so much knowledge, experience and skills as Wade. There are some who may be good in one respect or another. But none – absolutely none – offer the total package that Wade brings to a racing program. Without a doubt, our program would not have achieved its success without Wade.
He is unique, invaluable and irreplaceable.“