R2AK Race
 

I’m following a cool race. Race To Alaska or R2AK, a race from Port Townsend WA to Ketchikan AK with mandatory waypoint at Bella, via either the Inside Passage or the open water side of Vancouver Is.

There are sailing mono hulls, cats, trimarans, row boats, kayakers, and other boats, all with no engines at all. Strictly wind or muscle.

Website
https://r2ak.com/2022-daily-updates/

Map
https://r2ak2022.maprogress.com/

I’m focused on a couple teams that caught my fancy
- Lets Row Maybe, two super studly women from California who are competing in a freaking rowboat
- Don’t Tell Mom, another two person rowing team. At the moment, Lets Row and Don’t Tell are in the lead but they have beached for the night while the big sailboats will press on through the darkness.
- Pure And Wild, an experienced team in a fast 44’ monohull, who are one of only three teams choosing the outside route, which will apparently be either a really good choice or a really bad one. This is the first year that R2AK has permitted teams to choose the outside, and only if they are judged possibly able to make it. There are, apparently, no chase or support powerboats following the racers, and no Canadian Coast Guard on the west side of Vancouver Is, so they’re on their own.
- Malalo, a superfast foiling tri (not cat) maran with an experienced team that is running the inside route. In perfect conditions, Malalo can supposedly do 30 knots (!). But the passage is a minefield of submerged logs . . .
- Seas The Day, a family team in a Portland based sailboat, the only entry from the Weird City.

The shakedown was crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Victoria. The weather was terrible, high wind and big seas, four boats were dismasted or capsized or pitchpoled, about a third of the racers didn’t make it to Victoria in the days allotted. Now the survivors are off on the real race.

The winner gets $10K, second place gets a set of steak knives.

Ummm. No.

There is definitely coast guard coverage on the west coast of the island. There is a coast guard base in Tofino (I’ve used their services before in on July 1 1995 when I nearly sank our commercial fishing boat 10 miles off Leonard Island…).

The Canadian coast guard also has big ships (my childhood besty is Bosun on one).

Canada also got our first helicopter last year so there’s that too…

A friend of mine is on Kootenay Pedalwheelers. One of the 3 monos that chose to go on the outside of Vancouver Island.

Pure and Wild is really the only boat that is somewhat reasonable to take off shore in the North Pacific but with only 3 crew and a pretty lame looking paddle wheel on the back, they aren’t going anywhere fast if the wind shuts off. Could make the stretch after Bella Bella pretty slow for them. Time will tell!

That’s good to hear.

The race map includes Windy predictions. Interesting to run it forward and see what predicted wind conditions the racers were looking at when they made the decision to go inside or outside.

Avoiding tide gates and whirlpools and LOTS and LOTS of tacking seems to be the best reason to go off shore…….. but only in the right boat.

The “right boat” time and money aside is one of the more interesting aspects of the race. Having to be human or wind powered really limits how big of a boat you want to pick. Small, light, good in light air and not terrifying in heavy is a tall ask in yacht design.


……. That said, the race record is held by a 32ft beach cat that 4 guys spent 4 days living in drysuits on so if you’re a lot nuts……. That’s the way to go.

Is just three crew on a 44’ boat kind of thin, even if they are betting on enough wind to not have to rely on muscle power? Any insight on why Pure chose that crew size?

I’ll “favorite” Kootenay now too, thanks for telling me about your friend.

I mean, guys sail single handed non stop around the world on 60ft boats in the Vendée Globe but that’s all offshore sailing in highly optimized purpose built boats.

Pure and Wild is a custom built 44ft cruiser racer owned by an Olympic sailor and crewed by a former R2AK winner and an experienced 22 year old. They will be fine but their paddle wheel pedal setup and oars looks to be one of the least developed in the fleet on the biggest heaviest boat and with only 3, you won’t be doing as many sail changes and constant trimming of the sails as the Kootenay guys who have 6 on board with 2 thoroughly tested bicycle powered propellers on a boat that weighs less then half as much with much lower windage. Based on the start, the Kootenay boat is the fastest sailboat under human power.


But the Kootenay’s boat is 11ft shorter (never a good thing for speed) and while quite quick for what it is, it’s still a production Chinese built trailerable boat…… loaded with 6 guys in their 50s and a lot of food.

It’s anyones race on the outside of the island.

As to why pick 3 or 6, I can’t say but having done a lot of sailing, I have never had the problem of too many people wanting to crew. It’s hard to find people you trust that enjoy the sport and can take the time off work that these longer races require.

If you haven’t been over there. Sailing Anarchy is somewhat the Bird Board for sailors.

https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/r2ak-2022.227476/

Yikes, it sounds rather a long way in hostile conditions. Particularly for the bottom of the food chain guys such as row boats and kayaks.

https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/r2ak-2022.227476/page-9

9 pages and growing

sailinganarchy is NEVER SAFE FOR WORK

but reports from people who know

I probably don't know how to interpret the map, but sort of looks like a bunch of the boats on the inside are sheltering or beached, and one may have turned back (Pestou), while Malalo is pressing on?

Pestou broke a bulkhead hitting a few logs overnight and is returning to a town to try and make repairs

Turbo Rockanauts flipped over this morning and had an Instagram video posted sitting on the turned over boat before the coastguard even got to them.

The small boats and row boats all beach at night and camp so they will stop every night.

Time will tell if it’s a competitive choice but this is why you would choose the outside route.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1655489085.jpg

Pestou officially out

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1655489819.jpg

Malalo having trouble? Was really moving along.

I think just hiding from the current. The inside passage has some crazy currents that make certain sections impassible until the tide changes…….. or they also hit some thing. Damage from hitting a log kept them from finishing first a few years ago.

Malalo has stopped to asses log damage.

Seems to be a theme among the light weight trimarans so far as that makes 3 with enough damage to stop so far.

Kootenay seems to have recently stopped in a sheltered location.

Oh no! Per R2AK Instagram feed, Malolo out of race from damage, and on the west side Kootenay stopped to assess damage.

Ya, been a rough year for hitting things.

I guess they have had some record rain fall and more logs then usually out floating around.

They say with boats the only way to survive a log hit is have a stout boat and be going slow. None of the boats in this race could be considered stout.

The boat I sailed across the Pacific was stout and then we layered Kevlar on the inside below the waterline with a flexible epoxy resin to form essential a bomb blanket. Made you sleep better at night but don’t know as it would do much. Water tight bulkheads and crash boxes in the ends are the only way to go with an offshore race boat.

Malalo and Kootenay (and Elsewhere) seemed to be the boats that were as fast as Pure And Wild, I liked seeing the contest between three outside boats and Malolo zooming up the inside, I really hope Kootenay can resume.

In the right conditions, ie not too rough and under 30kts of wind, Malolo was untouchable in this years fleet of boats…….. but it’s fragile and they are out.

Pure and Wild is a really fast 44ft monohull but upwind or on a reach it’s not going to do more then 9kts of boat speed and 20ish max off the wind.

Malolo has hit 30kts of boat speed in ideal condition but as with all races, to finish first, first you must finish.

A boat work shop has lent their facilities to the Kootenay crew over night. They should be moving again by morning.

Yaay to Kootenay getting repaired and under way!

https://youtu.be/9IV2lgLGTt8

2019 racers did this long but cool video - a movie, really - I watched it over two sittings.

Can't help but think of the seamanship of old, taking a square rigged ship on the same passages...with no help available ashore.

No charts, weather forecasts, or maybe even knowing where you are . . . but I guess the explorers of yesteryear were at least in larger vessels?