FULL RACE- Port Townsend to Ketchikan
Team name: Team Can’t Anchor Us
Team captain: Tim “Pornstache” Penhallow
Total crew: 1
Race vessel: 16′ Swapscott Dory
R2AK cred: Tim and boat were 2/3 of Team Boatyard Boys’ successful finish in 2015
Everything we know about Team Can’t Anchor Us has a quality that might not have a word, but approximates stubborn edginess- like gristle, with a few grains of sand in it. What do we mean? We’re honestly not quite sure but, read the rest and tell us that shoe don’t fit.
Let’s start with their boat- the Swampcott Dory is a renowned east coast workboat design, not unlike the boat that Blackburn used to row to out of the winter storm by freezing his hands to the oars, or the one Shackleton used to row for help when his ship was frozen into the ice of Antarctica. More gristle? Tim and a buddy pulled the boat out of the blackberry bushes before the 2015 R2AK and set in to refitting her into something that might float all the way to Alaska. Job one was installing flotation tanks. They decked her over Shackleton style, added tanks, a bunk, and a sliding seat rowing station.
Two people for 750 miles on a 17’ boat of 19th century design they pulled out of the bushes-
That’s gristle.
Gristle-er still is that they made it. (link to their 2015 adventure here)
Of all the boats that made it to the Ketchikan finish line, the boat yard boys were in the best spirits. They told us that they’d do the trip again right then and there if they had the chance, and with their wide smiles and the empty beer cans in their hold we would have followed them anywhere- even back to Alaska.
Tim’s no stranger to the water: Van isle 360, Vic Maui, N 100 double handed. Numerous Swiftsure, Southern Straits and Patos Island races. He describes himself thusly “An Advid rower and boatbuilder from Austria. Mountaineer, timbercruiser and rugby player. Cruised his 50ft Bill Garden sloop all over hells half acre.” We don’t know if Advid was a dictation error common when chewing on gristle, or simply the highest level of rowing that an Austrian timbercruiser can attain (timbercruiser? Google is absolutely no help on that one.)- but he’s for sure sailed all over Hell’s Half Acre (no idea what that means…)
With his ambiguous and impressive resume, Tim is back with the nicest kind of resolute tenacity: same boat with twice the room (this time he’s doing it solo).
Why solo?
In his own paraphrased words: “I’m in the race for the little guy, to show that you don’t need a fancy race boat for the R2AK or to have great competition. I’m looking forward to competing with the small solo boats in the course- Colin Angus, Roger Mann, that pro-cyclist with the pedal boat, and the French guy.” Couldn’t say it better ourselves, but are a little nervous: an Austrian challenging the French in a winner take all contest for global dominance? What could go wrong?
Welcome aboard Team Can’t Anchor Us, we look forward to seeing your smiling face in Kethickan.