7 – Team Red Urchin: Rick Corless (John Welsford pathfinder)

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Red Urchin besieged by pirates.

Not a great sailor but really good looking.

A home built John Welsford pathfinder.

5 – Dutch Rudder Too: Neil & Thomas De Soucy and (Hobie 16)

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Pre-hot rodding. 

I’m hot-rodding the shit out of an ’81 Hobiecat 16. New hardware. New sails. New life in the best little boat race ever!

Neil bio: Son of a sailor. Slave to the mountains. Surfer by experience. Surveyor of all low tide line in Alaska from the Portland Canal to Bristol Bay under the tutelage of Dr. John Harper. Met up with Thomas and Robin who have welcomed me into exciting world of multihulls. Thomas taught me to fly the hull… which we will on the road to victory… probably.


4 – Lead on MacDuff: Suze Cumming et al. (Albacore)

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Placeholder pic…

Bringing an old 1979 wooden Albacore back to life for the Raid. Honoured to be included in such an event. I’ve been privileged to follow the raid for the past two events and can’t wait to be a more integral part of it.

My family had this boat built in 1979 in the Isle of Wight and I raced it internationally for many years as a youth. I recently went on an adventure to rediscover it and unexpectedly found it in the rafters of some curmudgeon in Parry Sound, Ontario. It had been stripped bare and some rot allowed to fester but she is well on her way to recovery.


2 — Coastal Express: Heather & Dan Drugge aboard Mirror Mirror

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Heather and Dan have been sailing small wooden boats up and down the coast since 2003 and have been dinghy sailors since 1969. As participants in stages 1 and 2 of the 2015 R2AK, Heather and Dan decided they had better ways to spend the next 2-3 weeks of their summer than bashing into gale-force headwinds, and sensibly turned around and went downwind instead.

Built in 1971, theirs is a 16 foot, wooden Mirror dinghy. She was originally built by Bells in England and shipped to Boston where she was sailed, but then eventually wrecked on a breakwater. She was advertised for free in Wooden Boat and Dan rescued her and restored her. Since then we have re-framed and reskinned Mirror Mirror. She is lightweight, at only 200 lbs with plenty of sail area at 70 sq. ft,  plus a full spinnaker.

1 – Team Meow: Tim Stanton et al. (Prindle 18)

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Tim’s boat for the 2022 raid

Actually, he describes it as a “near brand new 50 year old 18′ Prindle pulled out of the bushes” and himself thus:

“i love boating about as well as kicking back at the seashore” and “Splish splash!”


  • 2018 results: 2nd place aboard Ballpoint Buccaneers  with Quill and Chris — 33 points
  • 2019 results: as crew took 4th place aboard Cheese Balls with Robin Slieker — 35 points