The Race to Alaska is exactly what it sounds like. 750 miles from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska. No motor permitted. No outside support. In a kayak, a rowing dinghy, a purpose-built foiling trimaran, a 100-year-old wooden schooner, or a hydrofoil paddleboard — it does not matter. First to Ketchikan wins $10,000 cash and a week’s worth of salmon. Second place wins a set of steak knives.
The race began in 2015 with 45 boats. By 2024, entries exceeded 65 boats from 10 countries and the media coverage spanned five continents. It is the strangest, most dangerous, most entertaining sailing event in the world.
The route
The course follows the Inside Passage northward: out of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, up the British Columbia coast through Queen Charlotte Strait, Johnstone Strait, the Broughton Archipelago, and north through Southeast Alaska to Ketchikan. Two legs:
Leg 1. Port Townsend to Victoria, BC. About 40 miles, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Run as a qualifier — only boats that reach Victoria within the window proceed to Leg 2. This eliminates the boats that were never going to make it anyway.
Leg 2. Victoria to Ketchikan. The full 750-mile course. No time limit; the race ends when boats stop arriving.
Who races
The entry list is genuinely bizarre. Past entrants have included:
- A team of competitive triathletes in a custom rowing vessel who finished second
- A father-daughter team on a 26-ft plywood cat
- A 74-year-old single-hander
- A team from New Zealand on a purpose-built foiling proa
- A team that capsized in Canadian waters and swam to shore, then scratched
The race rules prohibit engines but are otherwise permissive about vessel type. A team could theoretically race a stand-up paddleboard (someone tried). The rules add: “if you’re doing something dumb, the race committee will probably let you, but we won’t be held responsible.”
The danger
This is a real race through genuinely dangerous water. The Dixon Entrance — the crossing between BC and Alaska — is an open ocean approach with Pacific swell, shipping traffic, and no shelter for 50 miles. Queen Charlotte Strait offers excellent wind for fast boats and a serious lee shore hazard for slow ones. The crossings must be timed with weather windows; teams monitor NOAA and Environment Canada forecasts obsessively.
Multiple boats have scratched due to capsizes, equipment failures, and medical emergencies. Nobody has died (as of 2024), but people have come close. The race committee takes safety seriously; the entry form requires evidence of sea experience and emergency equipment. Cold-water survival skills are not optional. See Cold Water Safety for the working framework.
The culture
What makes R2AK different from every other ocean race is the culture of radical openness and absurdist humour. The race manual (available at r2ak.com) is a piece of literature. The race’s social media during the event is compulsive viewing. Strangers help each other — a competing boat that loses a rudder in Queen Charlotte Strait will receive assistance from passing competitors who lose race time to help. This is not unusual; it is expected.
The starting protocol is the Le Mans start: at the gun, teams run their boats across the beach at Port Townsend and into the water. The image is the working visual of the race — a working catamaran sprinting across sand alongside a kayaker carrying a paddle, both racing for the same finish line 750 miles away.
Spectating
Port Townsend for the Le Mans start is worth the drive from Seattle. The start typically takes place in early June. The Victoria checkpoint is a working spectator point for the transition between legs. For the finish: Ketchikan’s Bar Harbor is the working endpoint and the photograph the trip is remembered by.
Racing
The entry fee is $500, plus the cost of the vessel, safety gear, and provisioning. Applications open in winter. The committee reviews entries and can reject vessels or teams it considers insufficiently prepared. Read the rules and the safety requirements carefully before applying.
Closing notes
R2AK is the working antidote to the formal yacht-club racing tradition. The combination of the no-engine rule, the open vessel-type policy, the absurdist culture, and the actual genuine danger of the Inside Passage in early June produces a race unlike any other. The boats that finish are not necessarily the fastest; they are the ones that read the weather correctly, rested at the right anchorages, and never gave up.
The salmon prize is real. The steak knives are real. The Ketchikan dock at the finish line is the working version of crossing an ocean — for a fraction of the distance and most of the satisfaction.
Related: Port Townsend Cruising Guide · San Juan Islands Cruising Guide · Cold Water Safety · Marine Safety Equipment · Reading Marine Weather