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  Celebrating sailing's wild side—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | The Race to Alaska has captured the imaginations of sailors everywhere Race to Alaska |
If you've spent time in Seattle or the Pacific Northwest, you know that we do things a bit differently in this neck of the woods. While we'll leave politics safely astern (ahem), Seattle's sailing scene is a great example of how this area takes the norm and inverts it, in this case putting many of our best Corinthian-level races in the fall/winter/spring seasons, which of course is a near antipodean opposite (at least from the calendar's perspective) from other areas that conduct racing when participants can actually wear shorts, t-shirts and sunblock.
This scheduling isn't an attempt to be counterculture, but rather to capture the best breeze of the year, before summer's annual wind-sucking high-pressure systems arrive...and stay...for much of the season.
 | | Dark Star approaches Whidbey Island during the 2014 Smith Island Race - Seattle Yacht Club's 2014 Smith Island Race David Schmidt |
But scheduling is only part of the story with our racing, the other major ingredient being adventure. While it certainly doesn't get Maine- or Vermont-level cold here, our winters aren't warm (imagine 36 degrees, with a constant misting rain, occasionally punctuated by honest downpours, and accompanied by fistfuls of wind), and the waters of Puget Sound-our racing grounds-stay a balmy 48 degrees all year, making MOB emergencies deadly serious while also intensifying the experience for anyone doing rail duty.
Peel the onion a few layers, and one quickly realizes that, while Puget Sound sailors are competitive and highly skilled, our weather, racing season and conditions (not to mention the myriad islands, both near and far, which dot our racing grounds and which our race committees regularly use as turning marks) lends themselves to a different kind of racing (read: regular park-ups and wind-driven informal restarts).
The net result, at least in my humble opinion, makes for an experience that's perhaps aimed more at crew bonding (who doesn't like sitting on the rail in almost-freezing temps, enjoying some Pacific Northwest “liquid sunshine”) and solid seamanship that the drum-tight crew choreography that's a critical part of windward-leeward racecourses.
 | | Jake Beatie, founder of the Race to Alaska Race to Alaska |
Jake Beattie, Daniel Evans and the other founders of the annual Race to Alaska clearly noticed this same appetite for adventure-orientated sailing, and-in 2014-they announced the first R2AK, which unfurled in June of 2015. Entrants are welcome to bring any kind of vessel they like, so long as it doesn't have an internal engine and so long as they plan to use human-powered propulsion (read: sailing or rowing or pedaling stern-mounted propeller drives) to get their team from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska, a distance of 750 wet-and-wooly miles.
 | | Team Pure and Wild/Freeburd, winners of the 2017 Race to Alaska Pure and Wild / Freeburd |
En route, each team must confront big tides, boatspeed-killing (or bolstering) currents, fickle winds, long stretches of wilderness beaches, whales, and the possibility of spying grizzly bears stalking the desolate beaches. Sailing on Puget Sound this is not, and while the hurdles are high, so too were the entry lists. Now, with three editions of the race under their belts, the entire sailing community owns the R2AK founders a slap on the back and a few pints at the pub (trust me, they won't say no), as they have boldly brought a big shot of adrenaline back into a sport that outside commentators have previously called a “sit-down sport”.
 | | The 2015 R2AK fleet deploys their human-powered tactics in light airs Race to Alaska |
Stepping outside of the Pacific Northwest and peering onto sailing's far grander stage, Australian adventurer Don McIntyre, the founder and organizer of the Golden Globe Race 2018 (GGR2018) race, is clearly tapping into a similarly rich vein. The GGR2018 begins on June 30th, 2018, in Plymouth, UK, and takes a fleet of vessels on a route that mimics the Sunday Times' Golden Globe Race of 1968-1969, which was the original solo, around-the-world race that minted names such as Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Bernard Moitessier, and-on a less positive note-Donald Crowhurst.
 | | Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won the Golden Globe Race of 1986-1969 Golden Globe Race |
Much like the R2AK, entrants can race whatever vessel they like, so long as it was designed before 1988 (with a minimum of 20 boats built from the same mold); is 32 to 36 feet LOA and is built from fiber reinforced plastic; carries a full keel with an attached (trailing) rudder, and has a minimum displacement of 13,670 pounds. Additionally, entrants must use traditional navigation (read: a sextant), not modern electronics (baring life-threatening emergencies, at which point they can break the glass seal on their emergency equipment and abandon their race), and they also cannot use modern satellite communications (baring weekly check-in calls to race HQ) to call home when things get scary (and they absolutely will).
If this sounds like a jump back to 1968, you've made Don McIntyre a happy man.
 | | Golden Globe Race 2018 founder Don McIntyre Barry Pickthall |
As of this writing, 29 brave souls have entered the GGR2018-including three Americans, Carl Huber, Istvan Kopar and Roy Butler Hubbard, and two female skippers, Izabel Pimentel (BRA) and Susie Goodall (UK)-demonstrating that interest levels are high and that takers for this wild ride are cropping up all across the globe, not only in a few adrenaline-addicted regions.
 | | Irish skipper Gregor McGuckin celebrates securing his Biscay 36 yacht for the 2018 Golden Globe Race. All skippers must race in vessels that were designed before 1988. © Gregor McGuckin / Golden Globe Race / PPL |
To be fair, R2AK and GGR2018 racers are not likely to set any passage records or break any 24-hour distance records. Instead, they are 100-percent likely to engage in the sort of adventure that makes people take stock of what truly matters; to evaluate themselves in a light that's not available on endless windward-leeward courses just outside of a marina, and to have an opportunity to engage in what some people consider to be a purer version of sailing, before technology removed so many of the life-defining question marks.
 | | 2018 Golden Globe Race Chart Barry Pickthall |
If this sort of racing sounds interesting, encourage your local regatta organizers and race committees to get a bit more creative with their courses and their adventure-quotient allowances. And if this fails, consider starting a local race that's light on technology and heavy on boldness-odds are good that if your local waters are anything like mine, there will be plenty of qualified takers on the starting line come race day.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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