Wildcat Sailorgirl: April 2015

Classics Week 2015 - Have You Hugged Your Tuggy Today

The Flying Buzzard is a ocean going tug built in 1951. According to last years Classics Week Program She worked until 1987 when she was retired to the Maryport Steamship Museum in Cumbria, Northwest England, where she languished for 20 years. In 2002 Mike Nelder and Julie Jessop saw her and fell in love with her. They had no previous experience but gave up their careers and set about bringing her back to life in their own way. Which means she is a livable tug with whimsical paintings all over her, art made from salvage jobs, bean bags, and eleven big solar panels.

Deck chairs

Tug dog, tug cat was below

Solar panels

Bean bags and paint make a fun deck

They departed in 2008 on a prolonged journey that will eventually take them to Vancouver British Columbia but they don't seem to be in any hurry to get there. They do deliveries and small salvage jobs.

They were the Committee Boat for Classics again this year and after all the racing was done, they graciously held an open.....tug for anyone that wanted to see. We did.

Flowers on the boom arm - love it

Did I mention they make art with things they salvage?

Tuggies? Oh, you want to know about the title - "Have you hugged your tuggy today." Tom came up with that. Let me back up. The first night of Classics we meet four of the crew of the Flying Buzzard at the Volunteers thank you party. They were off to the side and not really mixing with anyone. "We don't really fit in." said Doug in his thick Scottish accent. "We're the tuggies." said Angie in her thick German accent. And that is how Tom and I came to know the tuggies. We assured them that if we fit in, they fit in and we started chatting. See, the Flying Buzzards attracks some interesting characters as she travels long. Some stay for a week, some a month and others for a year or so. Each with their own unique story and talents.

Severn, Tom, Doug, Angie

Tuggy and engineer James

Over the next several days, we kept running into the tuggies out at night, off to the side here and there so we had a chance to get to know them all a little better. This is how Tom finally came up with the phrase "Have you hugged your tuggy today." Remember all those bumber stickers....have you hugged your kid today? Have you hugged your dog today? Have you hugged your bike today? We shared Tom's idea with the tuggies at the open house and they liked it (especially Doug) but the official t-shirts were already at the printers. Darn.

An old Irish lifeboat is their sailing dinghy

Sailing around the anchorage

Classics Week 2015 - Dinghy Concert

The second annual classics dinghy concert took place this year.

Stacey and Renee sv Pipe Muh Bligh

Bev sv Aseka, Paul and Jill sv Elevation

Charlie sv My Way, Don and Janis sv Plane to Sea with their dog

This time the venue was mv Partners.

No Vidya, it's not my dish

Hakan and Anna sv Unicorn

Liz and Devon sv Moosetracks, photobomb Ed sv Windswept Dreams

White Chocolate (Dave and Trudy of s/v Persephone) performed with help from a few others at times. Rock and roll oldies from the 60's and 70's.

David and Nancy sv Fawkes

sv Margie NOT Maugie (as some S Africans mumble on the VHF! Ha!)

Everyone took munchies to pass. People dinghy danced.

Lee went up his mast and took pics of the concert.

Concert photographer Lee - too much free coffee at the Panerai booth earlier in the day

sv Allergo with Lee up the mast

It was a good time.
*Yes, I posted a lot of pics. I couldn't cut anyone. Sorry.

Classics Week - Our Man Roy

April 22th 2015
We really can't go on any further telling you all about Classics Week without introducing you to our man Roy. We meet Roy the Sunday prior to race week in the Rusty Pelican. We went there so Tom could watch the final round of The Masters. Big day. Important Day. This was were he watched the final round last year. This year however......their TV was broken...so we were using the wifi instead but it just wasn't fast enough to stream anything. Roy wondered in and sat down next to me. He looked like every other scruffy, just sailed in overnight from somewhere sailor. His t-shirts was salt stained with a few holes and it said "Guiding Light". I remembered seeing that name on the list of race competitors when I looked online. Hum? Interesting, very interesting.

After Day Two - Roy's on the foredeck

Soon Roy and I were engaged in a light conversation and then Tom entered in and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting away. Later he admitted using a tried and true line on me "Good to see you again." Good one Roy.

Roy (Red Hat), Eileen and Tom

He is an unique and fascinating character. He is owner and captain of sailing yacht Guiding Light, a 36 ft Gaudtlet Cutter built in 1936. Oh yeah, and it's Roy's home. He happens to race he house. Not everyone is that brave. In fact few are. We remembered hearing about him last year because he had major issues prior to the race but made it there and raced well and then on the third day of racing starting taking on water. He said "Yes, but I didn't want to be rescued until I crossed the finish line." He finished in second to Lily Maid, our favorite from last year.

Pulling away from the others in his class

Rounding the mark Day Two

We kept running into Roy multiple times each day. Sometimes it was a simple "Hey Roy." and other times we engaged in full, and interesting conversations. The more we got to know Roy, the more we knew there was more to know.

The official race shirts

Guiding Light in the boat parade through English Harbor

We declared our allegiance early. "Roy's our man. We are cheering for Roy to win." We were not out on the water for the Singlehanded race but we were for the starts of Day One and Day Two. Roy charged over the line perfectly each day and pulled away from the rest of his class beautifully. We learned he took the cannon each of those days. In fact, he took the cannon all for days of racing. This means he was the first in his class to cross the finish line and thus got the cannon. Woo Hoo! However, adjusted times and all, he ended up each day and overall taking an official second to Lorema, a 25 ft Norwegian folkboat (Tord Sunden 25) that was the smallest yacht in the race. Roy just couldn't beat the huge adjusted time. "Oh well. What am I do." he shrugged. We congratulated him on four cannons and a hardy second anyway.

Roy accepting 2nd with his crew

Tom and Roy celebrate 4 cannons

Our Classics Week is definitely the better for having met and got to know Roy of Guiding Light. Oh yeah, and Roy made the cover of this years Classics Week program. You should go online and look, it's gorgeous.