Monday, December 29, 2014

Archipelago Rally 2014

Earwigoagin has been reporting on the exploits of the Tuthill sisters racing their boat-speed challenged Snark in this one-race, come one, come all, Portsmouth handicap event hosted, every November, in a different nook and cranny of Rhode Island coastline.
This year (gasp!) the Tuthill sisters jettisoned their Snark for the race, thinking they had upped their game with a lateen-rigged dink and. as it is frequently fore-ordained when you change a good thing, they unfortunately dropped the rig during the race (looks like the jury-rigged thwart lashing to hold up the mast failed). The younger sister, usually a bored, disinterested observer, was now called to the thankless and ultimately futile duty of becoming a human sidestay. These two documented the race and the disaster in a very amusing video.




Originator Chris Museler was undoubtedly pleased to have +40 boats attend this year (including the hastily splashed Crosby Skimmer Moth). I have lifted some photos from Rufus Van Gruisen's album.

The Tuthill sisters with Maharaja in "reef" mode.




My favorite "micro" dinghy, the Cape Cod Frosty.


A catboat and Penquin at the take-out ramp.


This fellow in the Zuma dinghy has a passing facial resemblance to the blogmeister (at least the mustache).



Click here for more photos from the Archipelago Rally Facebook page.

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6 comments:

  1. TillermanDecember 29, 2014 at 8:26 AM

    This looks like a fun event. Must get round to doing it one year. Perhaps with a grandkid or two on my Laser.

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  2. TillermanDecember 29, 2014 at 8:54 AM

    I think the Frosty sailor is Eli Slater who used to maintain an excellent blog about Frosty sailing. His URL eliblog.com now seems to have been taken over by the Japanese.

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  3. TweezermanDecember 29, 2014 at 4:32 PM

    Tillerman,

    Yes, I as well read Eli Slater's blog. I wrote a homage to Eli's blog back in 2011 in the post about the WOOD regatta.

    "Eli wrote a very interesting boat blog called "Eli Boat", sadly, no longer around. This blog "Earwigoagin" owes much of it's style to Eli Boat. I had an interesting conversation with Eli and Ross, most of it centered around the Frosty dinghy, a class in which both are top competitors."

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  4. TrevorDecember 30, 2014 at 11:54 AM

    The micro dinghies look pretty fun!

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  5. George ADecember 30, 2014 at 5:40 PM

    So what's the deal with the Iceland flag? Do the Tuthill's have an Icelandic connection?

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  6. TweezermanDecember 31, 2014 at 7:48 AM

    Trevor, Cape Cod Frosty plans are available from the association.

    George, Good pickup. I initially thought it was the Union Jack but now see that it is not. I have no idea why the Tuthill sisters are flying the Iceland flag but one of the strongly encouraged traditions of the Arc Rally is for each competitor to fly a personal flag.

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