RACE TO ALASKA IS A PROJECT OF NORTHWEST MARITIME
For three weeks, you’ve opened these emails to discover what went sideways while you were pretending to work. The answers usually involved salt-crusted electronics, dismastings, bad decisions near nameless islands, or a couple of human beings moving at 1.6 knots for the amount of time it takes to grow a turnip from seed. You watched…
Humans are generally advised to leave something in the tank. Save some money, get some sleep, keep a little in reserve for the inevitable. It’s solid advice—right up until tomorrow stops happening. Bruce Willis in Armageddon understood the loophole: if there’s no tomorrow, you can really open up the throttle on today. For three weeks,…
The docks in Ketchikan are quiet. The finish line bell is hanging moribund upon its post. The remaining beers are sitting around, warm by now because nobody has been down to check on the ice. Meanwhile, several thousand tracker enthusiasts are using industrial-strength Visine in a spray bottle to continue staring intensely at the four…
For three weeks, Team Let’s Wing It and Team Rainy have existed for the civilized world as two boat-shaped clusters of pixels on a screen. Every morning emerging from another knot of islands, every evening dissolving back into some anonymous cove, and almost always within a pixel of each other. If you spent your days…
Team Old Farts arrived in Ketchikan on Friday in the Ketchikan way: under a heavy, unrelenting gray faucet, thoroughly soaked, with a small crowd of family and friends watching them skid into Thomas Basin. They had big smiles, an un-broken boat, and dragging near the rudder, a commercial crab pot buoy they’d picked up somewhere…
Yesterday we said Team Chiliwilliwa was about to finish, and then they did, which is a relief when you’ve committed to a prediction in public. By hitting the dock, they collected the 20’ and under Sidebet put up by Small Craft Advisor Magazine and Turn Point Design: $1,000 and a pair of custom tactical sporks.…
Every bell ringing in Ketchikan is now performed by people who have spent a full fortnight on the race course, and currently look (and aggressively smell) like it. Yesterday dragged four additional survivors across the line: First in was Sea Peas, the third and final Olson 25 to reach Racer Valhalla. Greg and Michelle stepped…
While HIGH COMMAND continues its important work – specifically, sitting in a lonely Ketchikan hotel room with a typewriter and fingers gently drumming the table while waiting for Sea Peas and Jackalope to appear – we’ve turned to what every serious sporting organization does in moments like these: statistics. Or at least things that have…
Well. Now the Boogie Barge is in Ketchikan. Yesterday’s update took a calculated gamble by announcing their arrival before they had technically done the arriving part. As it turns out, while that email was making its way through inboxes, Team Boogie Barge was still busy enduring what they would later describe as the HARDEST DAY…
Nineteen over the line, nineteen still out there redefining the word “speed,” and twenty-five who have traded Clif Bars for a warm room and are already telling the story the way it ought to have happened. The latest addition to the ledger of unfinished business: Team Against All Oars—composed entirely of Dutch soloist Ron Straver—has…
Yesterday we traded tracking dots for a brief reminder that this whole enterprise runs on the goodwill of people who think a race this poorly conceived ought to exist. Thanks to everyone who threw money at the bucket. Back to the boats. The last team we logged in Ketchikan was Outliers, which happened about fourteen…
Today’s Daily Update is available exclusively to paying subscribers. We’d like to thank all of our paying subscribers for making this coverage possible. Unfortunately, there are zero of you. Which means today’s update will necessarily be brief, skeletal, and missing its soul. Here we go: A boat did a thing. Another boat also did a…
Writing these updates gets weird around Day Nine. By the time you read this, we’re already wrong. Right now there are six finishers. By the time this lands in your inbox, Team Outliers has almost certainly tied up in Ketchikan, and another half dozen teams have booked hotel rooms. Congratulations to all of you, sent…
Team Celerity has claimed second place and the sharp stuff, crossing the finish line in Ketchikan at 8:48 AM on June 23 with an elapsed time of 6 days, 21 hours, and 48 minutes. The Canadian crew of five, led by Robert Quade, rewrote the Hobie 33 chapter of the R2AK record book—their time beat…
Continue Reading June 24: The Steak Knives Have Left the Building
Last night, Team Northbound Nutters won the 2026 Race to Alaska. Perhaps the least surprising thing to ever happen in R2AK: The big yellow trimaran was the boat to beat from the start, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the way they sailed. Captain Nige Oswald, Michael Holt, Gavin Brackett, and Rob Woelfel finished…
Sometimes, while watching tracker dots and tails spread across the map, there’s a moment where a team that has been making steady progress — let’s say 7 to 9 knots through open water, with reported five-foot seas and 20ish knots of wind — comes to a sudden dead stop, and then begins drifting exactly the…
A milestone quietly slipped astern on Saturday afternoon: every remaining team is now north of Dodd Narrows. Salish Seasters was the last to tick the box, passing through around 3 p.m. Saturday and officially moving the entire fleet into the next chapter of this particular bad idea. About fifteen teams are currently winding their way…
Racers spent the last 36 hours or so learning a very R2AK lesson: sunshine is not your friend. Sunshine is just wind wearing a nice outfit. Having parked itself for a few days like a retired uncle with nowhere better to go, the high-pressure system west of Vancouver Island did its job: a day and…
Continue Reading The Great Northern Ass-Kicking and Other Vacation Choices
Race to Alaska has entered its Things Falling Off Boats phase, which is either deeply concerning or a cherished tradition, depending on your relationship with marine hardware. Triple Threat’s rudder is now somewhere near Waldron Island. Without a rudder the boat doesn’t steer, and without steering you’re not racing to Alaska. They’ve DNF’d. Moana MoProblems…
It’s Game On: after a forced layover in Victoria between the Proving Ground and now, 65 teams remaining after crossing a relatively placid Juan de Fuca are officially in the fight. The start itself was a delightfully congested exit from Victoria Harbour. Bells ringing, spectators yelling, adorable miniature water taxis idling nearby. However, waiting outside…
For a race that spent months threatening to destroy boats and people, Race to Alaska 2026 has so far chosen a different method to its madness. The forecast for the full race continues to play coy, draping isobars lazily across the chart as if nothing dramatic could possibly happen. At HIGH NOON tomorrow, 210 humans…
The marina began to leak signs of life around 4:00 a.m., mostly in the form of errant headlamp beams swinging across the dark and the low, desperate hiss of camp stoves trying to coax water and coffee grounds to a boil. Point Hudson was a dense packing of hulls that had no business sharing the…
Race to Alaska started this morning under suspiciously cooperative skies. Warm. Calm. A formal sendoff from a plane overhead. The vessels slipping out of Port Townsend into water so flat it was almost an insult. This is the Proving Grounds. Victoria, BC in 36 hours or go home. The inside passage doesn’t care how nice…
The lighthouse at Point Wilson is just the sort of lighthouse a lighthouse should be. White walls. Red roof. Standing out at the end of a finger of sand beyond a handful of wind-tortured trees suggesting all manner of unpleasantness. On nasty days it’s gray and cold and wet. The wind howls. Sea foam and…
Long before phones, comments sections, or anyone got mad about a halftime show, Race to Alaska’s troglodyte origins were born, a couple poorly-prepared Homo erectus maniacs chasing the same mammoth. No rules. No help. Just a pointy stick and a very large dinner on the line. The first one to get there eats. Second place…
R2AK Tracker Nation! It’s been a decade since R2AK’s first hold-my-beer and cross-your-fingers hoo-rah, where the rapscallion fringe launched into Alaska, history, and glorified oblivion. It was epic, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and Covid, and Covid, and again, and again. What did we do to celebrate our 10th…
Dear adventure artists, tracker hounds, dreamers of terrifying dreams, As you know, we, the cobblers’ children of Race to Alaska, pride ourselves on delivering an experience that’s as unpredictable as Johnstone Strait winds and makes failure but a tasty appetizer to triumph. With that spirit in mind, we’re announcing the next evolution of our beloved…
Let’s start with the facts. Forty-four teams started with dreams of glory and sea spray, fears of the rugged places, and pedaling-induced injuries. Of those, 32 aimed for the whole enchilada: the 750-mile gut-punch to Ketchikan. And to start the thing off, the Proving Ground didn’t disappoint. A perfect blend of (almost) Coast Guard-free waters…
Upon the news of the final finish, a sad foghorn was heard somewhere north of Bella Bella as the Grim Sweeper gave up its chase. Yesterday, two incredible solo teams etched their names into the R2AK annals with finishes that exemplified tenacity. Ohad of Team Spirit of Nevetz, on his XCAT (which received its share…
The good folks of Bella Bella are advised to keep off the water as the Grim Sweeper passes through sometime this afternoon. Team Outtaspace arrived in Ketchikan last night at the precise hour of “We’re not tired; you’re tired.” The trio of Caleb (son), Carlin (mom), and Olin (other guy), hit the finish line with…
The Grim Sweeper will pass near Port Hardy around noon today. We hear it’s been blasting Norwegian Black Metal on its unholy sound system. Day 17 of R2AK 2024, and the race continues. Yesterday, Team Victory Oar Duff rowed their way into Ketchikan, grabbing the 22nd finishing spot with a time of 16 days, 10…
From the depths of the R2Archives, we present a Daily Update written in 2018, updated for modern times. (Hey, you’ve read Siddhartha a half dozen times, perhaps you may not have squeezed all the juice out of our written words.) — We’re keeping busy, thanks for asking. The following is an excerpt from a fictitious…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 16: Talking To Ourselves, a Wood Stove Finish
Grim Sweeper Update: By noon today (June 27), the nasty fumes of the GS will reach Comox. Yesterday in Ketchikan was the first 24-hour stretch with no racer arrivals since Team Malolo rolled into town. The lull sent everybody’s minds and tracker screens back down the course to check in on the five remaining teams:…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 15: Metal on Metal, Mid-channel Napping
Greetings, race viewers and tracker fans! Brianna, from Team Sail Like A Mother, here for a friendly Daily Update takeover. We thought you might like to see a snapshot of the finish line from a racer’s perspective. First, let’s set the scene: the home stretch. Racers have been crammed together aboard a small vessel for…
Ketchikan. The city where “done” lives isn’t just a place; it’s a whole freakin’ vibe. Equal parts Wild West and Disney Funland, it’s a town where summers are measured in numbers of tourists (1.5 million a year), pounds of salmon candied (a bunch), First Nation totem poles (over 80), and amount of rain—measured in feet…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 13: City of Fish and the Glory of 19th
R2AK and the Pacific Crest Trail are two grueling endurance events where ambition defies comfort, and participants trade soft beds for whatever flat surface they can find. Both start with a spark of inspiration, a mess of logistics, and the struggle to fit big dreams into small lives. Gear is bought, plans are shuffled, and…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 12: Sun-Squinting; Soloing an Oval
Halfway point, folks. The moment where some next level magic happens, or the gremlins in the gears start dancing. It’s at this point minds begin to wander back to the start in Port Townsend, even as their eyes stay glued to the Ketchikan finish line. Sitting somewhere in a dark corner, perhaps an old woodshed…
[record scratch] Here on Day 10, the sequitur-less stylings of the masked scrivener of R2AK must give way to my far less metaphorically-driven reportage. Notice a shift: less meandering BS, more facts. And maybe a couple hundred fewer words. —Race Boss [resume play] The happenings on day nine of this Alaska Race provide a punctuative…
Continue Reading Stage 2, day 10: Racing because of things; Dynamite Required.
Like the difference in the water between calms and storms, R2AK can be drastically different experiences—even in the same year, even in teams finishing close to one another. Day Eight’s finish line proved a study in stark contrasts. We can’t make this stuff up. The Kids. In the three hours between 06:00 and 09:00 local…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 9: The Kids, the Stench, and the Comfort
The finish line was active for roughly the last 36 hours between Team Stranger Danger’s Day 6 finish and the early morning finishes of the High School Armada. (They got in too late to make the press deadline, more on them tomorrow.) Working backward from time of arrival, here are the rest: Day 7, 22:43,…
Hey, you with the screen. Before you plunge brains deep into this latest update, think about this: this update and this race, are created by a team of Top Ramen and coffee-fueled humans who work long into the night to keep the racers safe and the story factory churning. There’s no paywall because we love…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 7: Cash, Knives, and Two Buckets of Nothing
The world of media coverage needs things simple. Life is complicated. Depending on how you tilt your head, today’s top story was both. After somewhere between five days and nine years of hard-fought effort, Team Malolo crossed the line and rang in their rightful place in the annals of R2AK. It would be easy to…
It’s a big day for the Santa’s elves in Race to Alaska’s High Command. In all likelihood, today is the day when the tidal wave of racer energy washes onto Ketchikan shores and the first teams cross the finish line, ring the bell, and flop exhausted into the warm embrace of the 49th’s first city.…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 5: Just Live in Liquid Suspense
Either this is the most wind-starved Race to Alaska in recent memory or we’re suffering from early onset whatever it’s called. Seriously though, it’s like the wind was cut off because we forgot to pay the bill. Not a great look for a race that bills itself as “the most hardcore, go if you dare,…
By all accounts Seymour Narrows is one of the few made guys in the R2AK mafia. There’s never been enough evidence to convict, but Seymour has a well earned reputation as a tidal maelstrom with a rap sheet a mile long that includes massive whirlpools that suck under humans and small boats alike. When all…
Not that we had a solid bid to begin with, but whatever chance there was for the Race to Alaska to be inducted into the Society of Normal Sailing Races may just have been destroyed during the course of Day 2. Our inside source said that given the heavy weather and safe resolution of the…
Continue Reading Stage 2, Day 2: The bikiest sailing race on the planet
If you were to have invented, patented, then produced a new geiger counter that measured the levels of nervous energy instead of radiation, then deploy that device on the docks in Victoria for the 24-hours between noon on Tuesday and noon on Wednesday at least two things would be true: You would have spent a…
Race to Alaska is a lot of things, but it’s at least a race. Yes to Alaska, but first prove you can get to Victoria. To get there, you need to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’re public school graduates here at Race Command, but we all agree that in addition to being…
If you haven’t been, if you weren’t there, the Port Townsend start of the Race to Alaska is as magic a moment of early morning ridiculous as you could possibly imagine. 3 AM wake up? Ridiculous. The thousand-fan community lining the docks in predawn camaraderie? Ridiculous. The Unexpected Brass Band that shows up like clockwork…
Continue Reading Stage 1, Day 1: Start, Gales, and the Right Turn to Nowhere
Mic check, testing, one two, one two. (*Ahem*) Welcome to Race Day, you gender-non-specific and glorious bastards of the R2AK. Time to dust off the dopamine receptors, set your decoder rings to 11, and rise and frigging grind—it’s June and there’s a Ketchikan to catch. It’s been a while: 364 agonizing sleeps since the last…
Continue Reading Pre-Race Update: Ruckus? You Hardly Know Us.
