Exposed water, 2 shipping lanes and an international border.
Big tides, big ships, and the potential for big weather.
If the full race is a marathon, then proportionally Stage One is the 1600 meter, and when was the last time you ran a mile competitively?
Here are the teams that headed to Canada in 2015:
What you do at home is your business, but let’s keep it PG out there people, this is a family show Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Whitehall- Border Patrol Team captain: Diana Turner Total crew: 2 Race Vessel: Whitehall Spirit 17 Most R2AK teams hedge their bets- at least a little.…
It’s an odd looking rowboat… Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Traffic Team captain: Tim Lott Total crew:2 Race vessel: 25 foot C Class catamaran The quintessential scene from the 1976 film “Network” involves a career anchorman hitting a breaking point on-air. The central character was a newsman, but the system he…
The boats are yellow, the pants are brown, let’s do this! STAGE ONE- Port Townsend to Victoria Team Name: Toledo Community Boathouse Team Captain: Andy Linn Total crew: 2 Vessel: 12? Goose (stretched version of a Puddle Duck Racer) Team Toledo Community Boathouse are the kind of steely eyed individuals who stand with their two…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team The Windsurfer Team captain: Mark Dix Race vessel: a windsurfer There are things one can count on in life: death, taxes, and the way that people who are into board sports can take an already questionable idea and make it even more so. Team The Windsurfer…
If kayaking Antarctica wasn’t impressive enough, it seems he did it without gloves. Stage 1- Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team St Brendan Team Captain: Jimi Wright Race vessel: 17? Kevlar Kruger Sea Wind. Equipped with DIY modified sail rig We’ve never met Team St Brendan but already they already made the list of…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Silverbacks Team captain: Steve Chapin Additional crew: 3 Race vessel:
“Let the wild Rumpus begin”- Where the Wild Things Are STAGE 1- Port Townsend To Victoria Team name: Team Rumpus! Team captain: Additional crew: 3 Race Vessel: Santa Cruz 27 The sailing world is full of maritime dynasties – Herreshoff, Melges, and while the Buchan family tops the list in the Pacific Northwest R2AK central…
The only way this boat could be any better looking is if it was plastered with sponsor logos- NASCAR style. WITHDRAWN FROM STAGE 1- Port Townsend to Victoria Team Name: Puddles Team Captain: Rick Thompson Total on crew: 1 Vessel of choice: Welsford Walkabout Despite a name that reminds us of an matronly duck from…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Palaver Team captain: Kelley Watson Additional crew: 1 Race vessel: 19 foot rowing/sailing boat
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria</br> Team name: Team Otters Tale</br> Team captain: Brian McDonald</br> Additional crew: 0</br> Race vessel: 18 foot 2 person rowing dory with sails
STAGE ONE- Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team OMG Team captain: Geoff Pentz Total crew: At least one human Race vessel: 22’ Etchell OK, in these bios it’s an obligation to talk about the racers, but we’re going to keep that short so we can talk about their relatives. Team OMG: 1969 Etchell, experienced…
STAGE 1 only- Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Noddy’s Noggins Team captain: Simeon Baldwin Total crew: 2 Vessel: Scamp mini cruiser Noddy’s Noggins (and no, we don’t know what that means either) is the first team to enter as a stage one participant. Simeon has meticulously built his Scamp, somehow stretching 5 years of…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Mastgate Team captain: Tom Luque Race vessel: 19′ West Wight Potter website: http://www.mastgates.com/ While we might like Team Mastgate’s entry into the R2AK, our insurance guy LOVES them. Why? While more than a few teams are madly cobbling together high concept experiments whose main materials seem to…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team Name: Team Forest Grove Team captain: Tom Auran Total onboard: 2 Race vessel: 1985 Montgomery 15 sloop Tom Auran describes himself as “an aging mountaineer” who’s looking for a sport a bit “less taxing.” He started sailing on the Columbia River a couple years ago and got bitten…
“Oh Canada, my home and native land…” he sang to himself while secretly feeling the gold medal and in his pocket. STAGE 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team For Sparta Team Captain: Adam Kreek Total crew: 2 Race vessel: Whitehall Spirit rowing boat Big spending sponsor: Whitehall Spirit Rowing Boats There are essentially…
Everglades Challenge- a seemingly warmer brand of hardship, Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Foggy Sailing Team captain: Ed Gosset Total onboard: 1 Race vessel: Home-built Core Sound 17 Team Foggy Sailing’s watery trajectory is one of the few we’ve seen that takes a bell shape curve from sailing canoes on Colorado…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Bus Bailey Team captain: Colin Masson Additional crew: 0 Race vessel: 13.5 foot hand troll boat (built in 1937)
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Eagle Team captain: Steve Hiegel Additional crew: 0 Race vessel: Kayak Sensible kayakers pray for flat water. Steve Hiegel hates that. He yearns for wind, waves and – best of all – big surf. Each winter, he hauls his boat out to the Hobuck Hoedown at…
STAGE 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team CaROWline (get it?) Team captain: Caroline Kreuziger Total crew: 1 Race vessel: 18′ Angus expedition rower Your initial ascent climbing lead, the first skydive without an instructor to pull your cord, the first time you wear your big girl pants to school. There are life moments…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Bengal Taxi Team captain: David Reid Additional crew: Pat Gallagher We live in fast times. A normal day in our world could involve getting on a plane on the east coast, order a G&T from the stewardess then hopping online and ordering some produce delivered to…
Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria Team name: Team Bahamas Team captain: Chris Spohr Race vessel: Sovereign 18 Website:http://www.simplicitysails.com The R2AK has two official options- race to Victoria and call it a day, or do the whole 750 miles and race all the way to Ketchikan. Team Bahamas dreamed up a race hack by creating a previously undiscovered option…
Roger didn’t win the inaugural race, but that’s only because he was doing something more impressive than grabbing the fastest boat and going for time fastest time. After setting a record or three in the east coast’s various Watertribe Challenges, he cocked his head to the north, launched his boat and soloed the whole way to Ketchikan on a Hobie Adventure Island- 17 feet of red, rotomolded glory.