lippitt.co / Psailing / goal sail 5 of 6

Race to Alaska

Port Townsend to Ketchikan. 750 miles. No engines, no support, all guts.

target 2034Junedream, not a plan
Approaching Seymour Narrows
Approaching Seymour Narrows, the first mandatory waypoint · Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0

The idea

Stage one is a 40-mile proving ground across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria. Stage two is a Le Mans start off the Victoria causeway and then everything the Inside Passage has: Seymour Narrows, Johnstone Strait, Cape Caution, Bella Bella, Dixon Entrance. First to Ketchikan gets ten thousand dollars nailed to a tree. Second gets steak knives. About half the fleet doesn't finish.

This is the one all the others are practice for. The SEVENTY48 puts me on the beach with these people; the Maine trail teaches me to live out of a small boat; the Everglades teaches me to sail one. By the time this comes around I want to be a mid-fleet finisher, not a story.

“Just because you can do something doesn't make it a good idea.”R2AK official rules

The route

Port TownsendVictoriaNanaimoCampbell RiverSeymour NarrowsJohnstone StraitPort HardyCape CautionBella BellaPrince RupertKetchikanN100 nm
Race to Alaska — route sketch — schematic, drawn from waypoints, not a chart. Don't navigate by it.
distance
750 miles (40 to Victoria, then ~710 to Ketchikan)
when
June, every other year (next: 2028, then 2030…)
boat
Something that sails well and pedals when it must

A sketch of the schedule

Roughly how it goes, from the people who have done it. Numbers to be corrected by weather.

whenwhat
Day 1Stage 1: Port Townsend to Victoria, 36-hour limit. Cross the Strait, don't get run down.
Day 3Stage 2 Le Mans start at noon. Up the Strait of Georgia.
Days 4–6Campbell River, hit Seymour Narrows at slack. Johnstone Strait's afternoon westerly.
Days 7–9Port Hardy, then Cape Caution when the swell allows. Bella Bella waypoint.
Days 10–13The long middle: Grenville Channel, Prince Rupert.
Days 14–16Dixon Entrance and Ketchikan. Ring the bell. Sweep boat leaves day 12 after the start, so keep moving.

Pictures to remember it by

Approaching Bella Bella
Bella Bella, waypoint two · JordanEightySeven, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ketchikan waterfront
Ketchikan, the bell · Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 2.0
A cruising trimaran under sail
The kind of boat that wins · Pbmaise, CC BY-SA 4.0
Point Hudson, Port Townsend
Point Hudson, where it all starts · Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0

When, honestly

2034

A team of two, a boat under 30 feet with a pedal drive, and a Team name Ashley approves. Twelve to fourteen days. The bell in Ketchikan.

Resources

Other people's accounts and the official pages. Read these before believing anything above.