Cruising World - May 2016

may 2016

cruisingworld.com

MAY 2016

UNDERWAY

NEWS and NOTES from the CRUISING COMMUNITY

Edited by Jen Brett

ANYTHING GOES

A

15-foot wooden tender, in three separate pieces, sitting

on a seaweed-covered launch ramp. That’s how George

and Lindsey Hill started their morning one day last Oc-

tober, preparing for their favorite regatta of the year. The couple

bolted their home-built nesting dinghy together as kids skipped

rocks across Massachusetts’ Westport River. Forty-eight other

craft, all equally as unique as the Hills’ classy, varnished pulling

boat with its lug rig, began to appear on the sandy riverbank.

This was the Hills’ seventh time at the Archipelago Rally, held

annually across Rhode Island and last fall in Massachusetts. For

those in southern New England who love just messing about in

boats, this late-season event induces giddiness.

“I never had a lesson. I just played around in boats,” says

George, who spends summers racing the famed 12- Meter Weath-

erly for his company, America’s Cup Charters, in Newport,

Rhode Island. “This is like so much of my youth. Rowing into

breaking waves, swamping the thing, doing stupid stuf and

learning from it on the water.”

Like many of the sailors who have been attending the rally over

its 10-year history, George looks forward to this thrown-together

Boats and sailors of all stripes participate in the Archipelago

Rally, held each fall in New England. To enter, the boat needs

PETER MCGOWAN to be powered by wind. Look for the rally’s page on Facebook.

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