I grew up in a sailing family and learned mostly by crewing on a dragon. When I got my own laser I found out I was more of an explorer than a racer and I spent a lot of time just gunkholing about in Cottage country lakes in Ontario. Since coming to the west coast ten years ago I’ve been itching to do some longer trips aboard a small boat. Here we go!

I have a Crawford built Melonseed skiff, Hull #521. The skiff is a copy of an 1890 Chapelle boat in the Smithsonian. I commissioned the build in 2016, and had “Squirt” shipped from Massachusetts in the spring of 2017. About the size of a Laser, but with a little storage under deck, and just enough room to sleep aboard. She’s just a simple Sprit rigged cat boat, but great in light air and steady in a blow.

Six months after Ted learned to sail, a timely, persuasive email earned him a berth on a Ketchikan-bound Montgomery 17 in the 2015 R2AK. The three week trip north left Ted hopelessly strung-out and addicted to Salish Sea salt. His downward spiral into abject nautical nerd-dome has continued with frequent cruises, racing, a Caribbean delivery, a backyard festooned with wretched paddlecraft including a recent unlikely Seventy48 finisher, and employers who at this very moment are likely looking at the preponderance of “OOTO – SAILING” entries on Ted’s google calendar and pulling up HR on Slack.

Over Easy is a 1978 Montgomery 17, a 2016 R2AK finisher in different hands and under a different name. When the prior owners loaded this sweet marigold tortoise on a barge in Ketchikan, never wanting to see or smell it again as long as they lived, Ted was a perfect mark – still wrapped in the Stockholm-syndrome of Monty fandome following his survival of the 2015 R2AK, and young and dumb enough to buy a boat essentially sight unseen while it was in transit back to Seattle. Still sporting a number of significant upgrades from R2AK, Over Easy is ready for the Raid course. All that remains to be seen is if Ted is really prepared to face his demons and rig up the oars.

 

The second Scamp to enter, these guys are the first pair of matched boats to sign up, and they’re both listed as cruising class. As if they’re not gonna be racing each other. First one to finish loses……..!

“Dale first heard about the Shipyard Raids when he started to get serious about building his own boat. Researching beach-cruising sailboat designs he stumbled across aging reports of past Raid voyages, and decided that was something worth aspiring to.

He comes to the Barefoot Raid with a life-long love of rowing, paddling and sailing in his local Salish Seas, many years of experience crewing in Vancouver Area Racing Circuit campaigns, and a few rough stretches of seasickness offshore. He participated in the first leg of Race to Alaska 2017 with Team Noddy’s Noggins (a sister-ship to his own Scamp), where he learned new respect for modern weather-reporting accuracy, and gained even more confidence in the seaworthiness of the John Welsford design.

“Luna” sort of chose Dale… all his research was thrown away when he heard about the first Scamp Camp in Port Townsend: build your own microcruising dinghy under the guidance of her designer, with adventurer Howard Rice and two boatwrights assisting. Completed in his townhouse single-car garage in 2014, Luna has taken Dale on amazing adventures, from cruising the Discovery Islands to surfing the standing waves in the Columbia River Gorge.

“As publisher of Small Craft Advisor magazine, one of my jobs is to go sail and cruise small boats. With that requirement in mind I have reluctantly agreed to “take one for the team” and join the Barefoot Raid. But please keep in mind while you guys are having fun I’m actually at work, so if you could try to keep the noise down that would be great. Also it would help if some of you could pull reckless stunts and position your boats in a photogenic way.

My crew is my cousin Tim Tanner, a waterman from down in Point Reyes, California. We’ve survived a number of adventures together and, as incredible as this sounds, he actually enjoys rowing, so it made sense to team up for the Raid. I thinking our fully-laden Scamp ought to row more-or-less like the shells he’s used to. ”

SCAMP is a (roughly) 12-foot microcruiser with a few unusual features, including an offset centerboard, water ballast, and a stowage cabin with a partial cuddy we call the veranda.

 

This salty bunch of rowdies represent some of the Silva Bay Shipyard Schools Brightest.

Having grown up in one of BC’s finest coastal communities (never mind which one), Dylan built his Newfoundland Trap Skiff while a student at SBSS.  Having crewed aboard “Dick Smiley” in the ‘15 R2AK, Dylan has decided that boat will present no challenge for his vessel and its crew of elite seafarers.

A graduate of the 99/00 class, Trevor was the assistant instructor at the school for a number of years, and oversaw many of the details while Iruya was under construction. Trevor is a master of his craft, and is responsible for having built the coveted Raid trophy. With his three young sons aboard, they sailed the 09 SBSS Raid in “Ratty”

Returning to his native South Africa upon completion of the SBSS, Emil has come back to Canada, prepared to take on the rugged dampness of the B.C. Coast. A shipwright, a new dad, and a volunteer fire fighter, Emil’s quiet determination will be the counterpoint to Dylan and Trevor’s loud, overbearing displays of showmanship.

 

“I’m constantly looking for a challenge. Although I’ve spent most of my life on the water on many different boats doing some questionable things, the most memorable adventure was an attempt at the R2AK with my good friend Ryan Wegwitz in 2016 for our 40th birthdays. I met some really cool people in the R2AK and when I heard about the Raid and the fact some of them would be in it, I couldn’t pass it up! (more importantly my wife said yes)
The Weta isn’t probably the best choice for this type of excursion, as ‘overnighting’ wasn’t in the sales brochure. Neither is attaching fenders or even an anchor. Is anyone bringing a toilet I can use? I obviously have some work to do….”

I bought the boat last fall from a local guy who wasn’t really selling. I contacted him for info on another Weta I found in California and after a long discussion he offered his boat to me.

“I have been a commercial diver for the past 35 years,cruising up and down B.C. s west coast in a powered vessel, exploring almost every mile of coastline underwater.
Back in 2006 I took a year off diving and a attended the Silva Bay Shipyard School. I learned new skills and fell in love with working with wood and of course boat building. After completing the course i started building a John Welsford Pathfinder. that was in 2007. Long story short Im 95 percent finished and am using the raid as a kick in the pants to finish the boat and start sailing. ”

My boat is an almost completed John Welsford Pathfinder. Now that i am paying to register it in the Barefoot Raid, I will make sure it is 100 percent completed in time….

Steve grew up sailing the Salish Sea, in dinghies, keelboats and multihulls. A 2016 R2AK veteran, he lives in Courtenay and has sailed all over the Pacific. Just finishing up 3 months sailing the Sea of Cortez.

Fly is a 1996 F27 trimaran. Not a classic small open dinghy cruiser, but becoming a little bit classic plastic multihull, as the years go by. I’ll be using a crude yuloh for human power so that might compensate for some of the fine sailing qualities.

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.

The boat is a Colin Angus designed RowCruiser, 19′ long and propelled solely by a sliding-seat rowing rig. Considering the boat dimensions it has a sleeping cabin which is surprisingly roomy, and with plenty of dry storage is tailor-made for extended coastal adventuring. Dave has so far elected to not convert his RowCruiser with the available sailing kit plans, a decision he may or may not deeply regret following this raid.