Golden Eye is a 1975 lapstrake “tent sailboat” built by Greg Foster of Whaler Bay. Her gaff canvas mainsail and jib, and hemp ropes and lines, were made by Shay Foster and still work beautifully today. Her previous owner had her cedar planks and frames recovered in a restoration by the Granville Island Boatyard, and, honestly, the hard Dynel shell is possibly why she has survived the last 6 years under the Dread’s ownership. She sailed in 2018 to Whaler Bay to meet her makers, who were pleased to see she was still alive, as only 2 of the 5 “tent sailboats” they built have survived. Still designing, but notoriously reclusive, Greg Foster is passionate about reviving functional, traditional designs – especially pre-motorized boats with efficient hulls – and built many beautiful vessels that are still plying the PNW, including the S.A.L.T.S. tallship schooner, Pacific Grace. Greg designed Golden Eye along the lines of a Providence Riverboat, specifically for exploring the Gulf Islands, with her centreboard, long oars, and a 100 ft canvas main that can function as a snug tent, which her current owner finds works very satisfactorily. She is a perfect little boat to singlehand, easy to maneuver, and beamy enough to handle almost any weather. She’s looking forward to getting off the damn trailer and back into the water where she belongs…
In a breakaway from tradition, Tobi ‘The Dread’ Elliott returns to Raid in her own vessel, the diminutive gaff sloop, Golden Eye. Vowing to avenge her name and the spar of the ship she pirated in 2019 from Rick the Good (whose name shall forever be venerated in the Raid logs as the most saintly sailor of them all), the Dread has given up trailering (but not piracy) and is bent on a decent start in 2020 in her home waters of Gabriola Island. A fairweather sailor, a landless hippie and a devoted mother of two worthless horses that keep her poor, the Dread splits her time between finishing her tiny house, editing video, fermenting vegetables, and inflicting her progressive ideals on the rural community that can’t seem to be rid of her. One day she plans to trailer her tiny house further north, where the winds are strong, the snows is deep, her horses can forage freely, and she can break as many spars as she wants without issue.
- 2019 results: Team Pirate Urchin with “Red” Elhe and “The Dread” Tobi placed 9th – 92 points
