Race to Alaska, Hawaii, Olympics—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 5 Jul 2016 As Americans and Canadians shake off the dust from long, fun weekends spent celebrating the 4th of July and Canada Day (respectively), there are plenty of interesting and exciting happenings in the sailing world, especially now that summer is officially reaching high gear.

For starters, Randy Miller and crewmates Ian Andrewes and Colin Dunphy, racing aboard Miller’s M32 catamaran Mad Dog Racing, set a bold new record in the Race to Alaska, shaving days off the previous record, which many people thought would stand for years. The team arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska, to claim the $10,000 in purse money that the event organizers had ceremoniously nailed to a tree (OK a piece of firewood) just three days, 20 hours and 13 minutes after starting the second leg of racing in the seaside town of Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

While the Mad Dog Racing team set an incredibly high bar, one of the more interesting elements of this year’s race was the down-to-the-wire contest between several teams for the second-place prize, namely a set of steak knives. Team Skiff Foundation Jungle Kitty ultimately claimed the consolation knives, but Team Big Broderna and Team Madrona made sure to keep the pressure on until the finishing line.

Speaking of Victoria, the fabled the “Vic-Maui” race is set to start sending racers to sea, pursuit-style, this week, with the slower boats starting on July 9 and successive starts continuing through July 12. This year marks a half-century of racing (1965-2016) from Victoria to Maui and will no doubt see plenty of great competition en route to the Aloha State.

And speaking of Hawaii races, the Pacific Cup, which bills itself as “the FUN Race to Hawaii”, kicks off in San Francisco, also with a pursuit-style start, starting on July 11 and continuing through July 15.

In the case of both of these storied Hawaii races, which take place every other year (on even-numbered years), the emphasis is on proper boat and crew preparation for the challenges of a serious bluewater event, with cutthroat competition taking a back seat to solid seamanship and careful team organization. Because of this, plenty of sailors use these events to learn the ropes of offshore sailing before delving into an event such as the Transpac Race (odd-numbered years).

Meanwhile, on sailing’s bigger international stage, the Rio 2016 Olympics are set to start unfurling on August 5, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While the news coming out of Rio just a mere month before the opening ceremony isn’t exactly great, this doesn’t diminish the amount of work, dedication and sheer gumption that thousands of international athletes have applied to earn their berth at the XXXI Games.

Just recently, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Sail Canada announced the names of nine sailors who will be representing their country at this summer’s Games. According to reports, inside this issue, the Canadian sailing team will compete in six different classes: the Laser, the Laser Radial, the Finn, the Men’s 470, the 49er FX and the Nacra 17.

In Volvo Ocean Race news, the route for the 2017-2018 edition of the race was recently announced and will feature significantly more Southern Ocean racing than more recent editions of this round-the-world race have seen. While the race has long enjoyed a strong reputation for delivering body- and boat-breaking conditions, the recently announced leg of almost 12,000 nautical miles, from Cape Town to Hong Kong, is sure to test each sailor’s spirit as the boats bash and crash for 30-plus days.

The 2017 start may still be over the horizon, but this did not stop AkzoNobel from becoming the first team to announce their participation in the upcoming edition. According to reports, inside, the Dutch-based team will be lead by skipper Simeon Tienpont, a veteran of three Volvo Ocean Races and several America’s Cups, and will include some of the world’s best offshore sailors.

So, as we all shake off the dust and return to our workweeks after a big weekend of celebrating our nations’ birthdays, take heart in the fact that there is some really engaging sailboat racing on the horizon, both offshore and in Olympic sailing circles.

As for third place in the Race to Alaska, however, much like miners of yore pulling fool’s gold from the ground, these sailors (as well as the rest of the Race to Alaska fleet), will have the solid self-satisfaction of knowing that they completed one of the world’s toughest, if not craziest, racecourses imaginable, consolation cutlery and and $10K not included.

May the four winds blow you safely home,