Team Pturbodactyl

More bios

Team members: John Tulip, Terry Bieman, John Hillier, James Tulip
Hometown: Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
Race vessel: Corsair F31R
LOA: 31′
Human propulsion: Two pedal drives and backup oars

 

TL;DR: Silent Ps, bad cops, henges, Newfies, and some dodgy information about import taxes.

This is embarrassing. Other than how annoyed we are trying to spell their name, we don’t know much about Team Pturbotactyl. Sure, it’s easy to blame the global supply chain disruption, it’s possible that all the relevant facts were stuck on a loading dock somewhere in Oakland, but we know shockingly little about Team Pterturb… Pturgid… Pturbido—nope, can’t do it. Team P (pronounced “Peam T.” Irritating) answered our application questions like a stone-cold criminal:

R2AK: “Tell us about your adventure experience.”
TP: “Lawyer.”

That’s when the bad cop part of us slammed down a virtual manilla folder of internet research in glossy 8x10s. Not gonna talk? We’ve got evidence.

The most tight-lipped among them claimed that flat feet kept him out of the draft, which ended in Canada in 1944, and in the US in 1973—when he was four?!

Stop playing games, Bierman. We want answers, and we can bring the pT ptoo.

We scoured the internet and got them. Let’s start with being a lifetime Search and Rescue worker on Salt Spring Island, who also has spent more than two decades protesting ptimber companies to preserve BC’s forests. Then, there’s the stone masonry. His pinnacle? pTerry helped create an actual henge for a private homeowner. Want proof?:

Mess with the bull, you get the henge.

More importantly, he’s had a lifetime of search and rescue work keeping his island community safe and sailing with Team P in local races.

After that, seeing what we did with pTerry and scared of what henges we might find in their closets, the rest of them started singing like canaries.

The core of Team P is the two-generation, ptriple threat of John and James pTulip, who between the two of them have sailed almost everything available; from the classic dinghy racing options, to a series of family sailing boats that they have cruised in and around Vancouver Island for the past 20 years.

More than that, the pTulips are repeat R2AK offenders, back after an 8 day and change finish in 2017 as Team 3 ½ Aussies. Tired of fractions and longing for more silent P’s, John swapped out his 2017 crew for a different same-named Aussie, the ptightlipped/flatfooted henge maker, and an enthusiastic Newfie with military-grade experience on and under the water as a Navy diver, dinghy racing, and race crew on all of the local races except for what he calls “The big three: R2AK/VicMaui/VanIsle 360.”

Their boat is the same F-31 they sailed in 2017. A ptrimaran is a proven choice, but the F31 is the biggest Farrier that’s R’d 2AK to date; slightly more speed potential and more room for creature comforts to keep you sane to Alaska. We can neither confirm nor deny that this particular vessel includes a travel-sized henge, for emergencies.

Welcome to the R2AK, Team Pturbodactyl. Remember: depending on the construction techniques and materials, henges brought into the US may be subject to import excise tax. It’s an old law, but they still enforce it sometimes.