The return of the Race to Alaska—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 17 Sep 2015 Earlier this year, I had the distinct pleasure of joining my friends Joe Bersch and Dalton Bergan aboard their Paul Bieker-designed 24-foot proa, Team Pure and Wild, for the first leg of the Race to Alaska (R2AK), a 750-mile “human-powered” race that took teams from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska.

Teams were permitted to use any craft imaginable, so long as it didn’t have an auxiliary engine, opening the door to a wild entry list that ranged from Team Pure and Wild’s proa, to windsurfers, kayaks, trimarans and even a tri-foiler...and that's not to mention the Team Soggy Beavers, who paddled to Ketchikan aboard a six-man canoe.

And while the first leg, which went from Port Townsend to Victoria, British Columbia, was only 40 miles, the experience gave me plenty of opportunity to test my drysuit’s seals while also getting a taste of the adventure that lay ahead of the fleet en route to Ketchikan.

Having sailed in a wide variety of races around the world, these 40 miles were more than enough to show me that the R2AK was not only a breath of fresh air in the sailing world but was also more about seamanship, survival sailing, and wilderness smarts (not to mention negotiating big tides and cold, cold water) than it was about geeking an extra 0.0125 knots out of the boat in another (mindless) windward-leeward course.

Having spent a lot of time contemplating the genius behind the R2AK, including the $10,000 first-place prize that was ceremoniously nailed to a tree (OK, it was a log) in Ketchikan (the second-place prize was a set of steak knives), as well as the race’s ethos of self-sufficiency and sound seamanship, it’s obvious that the organizers got a lucky break with Leg One, as the windy, bouncy conditions going across the Strait of Juan de Fuca helped to separate the fleet’s wheat from its chafe.

Not surprisingly, several ill-prepared (or unlucky) teams had dropped out by the time the fleet reached Victoria, and this number quickly grew during the first few days of Leg Two, as the reality of 710 miles of cold, cold water, unseasonably strong headwinds, and huge tide cycles set in.

While retiring from racing is never an easy decision, I was grateful that the fleet was tested early on (the white caps appeared minutes after crossing the starting line), as an easy first several hundred miles could have potentially exposed the wrong craft to big, offshore conditions in Queen Charlotte Sound.

Thankfully, all sailors (both retirees and finishers) made it back to terra firma relatively unscathed (sans perhaps a hard-nosed reality check), the race was a huge success, and the event organizers, led by Jake Beattie, the director of the Northwest Maritime Center (and the R2AK) in Port Townsend, helped to (hopefully!) usher in a bold new era of point-to-point adventure racing in North America.

The only real question remaining was whether the race would be a one-off, or the start of a new seafaring tradition. This question was recently answered in the R2AK’s typically bold style: Beattie and company not only announced that the second-annual R2AK would start on June 23, 2016 from Port Townsend, but also formally invited (challenged?) Larry Ellison, the current custodian of the America’s Cup, to enter the race using a wingsail-powered foiling catamaran in a promotional video for next year’s race.

Additionally, Beattie and company mailed a hand-addressed letter, proposing that he enter the race, to Ellison at Oracle’s California offices.

“Here’s the challenge, Larry,” said Beattie in the video. “Get an America’s Cup boat, race engineless and unsupported all the way to Ketchikan within the rules and time allowed, and if you can just finish the race, I’ve been authorized to give you-Larry Ellison-your own personal set of Race to Alaska steak knives. You don’t have to win-you just have to finish. You’ve gone sailing before-this should be pretty easy.”

The punchline, of course, if that this video challenge was shot on the back of a dilapidated pickup truck, somewhere in the backwoods of the Olympic Peninsula, far removed from the vision of sailing that Mr. Ellison has experienced. Moreover, Beattie personally waved Ellison’s entry fee, should he decide to accept the R2AK challenge aboard a previous America’s Cup steed.

And while there is no word yet as to if Mr. Ellison will be racing to Alaska in 2016 (highly doubtful, at best), Beattie and company have reported that they have already started to receive official entries from qualified racers, including an antipodean entry from New Zealand! This is wonderful news, especially for sailors who are interested in a bit more adventure in their sailing lives than riffling through another set of short-course races at a weekend regatta.

Stay tuned to the website for the latest R2AK news, as it breaks, and be sure to also check out our coverage of the Clipper Round the World Race, the New York Yacht Club’s Invitational Cup, the Melges 20 Worlds, and the Little America’s Cup. And finally, don’t miss the latest news from the Laser class, which just announced a new “Standard Mark II” sail, as well as Bruce Kirby’s (the Laser’s designer) thoughts on the new VPLP/Verdier-designed super maxi, Comanche.

May the four winds blow you safely home,