The Race to Alaska: America's Most Dangerous Sailing Competition

(Hardback)

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A colorful, edgy chronicle of the one-of-a-kind race through North America's last wild places that has captured America's frontier spirit.

Race to Alaska started as a single question: What would happen if someone nailed $10,000 to a tree, challenged any engineless boat to be the first to navigate the 750 wild miles from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska, and then yelled "Go!" Race organizers wanted to reconnect human imagination to the watery adventure of the inside passage. With growing national media coverage that has drawn worldwide attention, the Race to Alaska is a free-range adventure race that rewards sailors with resilience and personal skill rather than the person who has enough money to buy the fastest boat and the best crew.

Written by race organizer Jake Beattie, this is a book that celebrates gritty heroes and real people who rise to the challenge of being self-reliant and carbon-free in one of our world's last wild places. First place gets $10,000. Second place a set of steak knives.

This first Race to Alaska in 2014 attracted the broadest swath of participants: Olympians and world record holders, mad scientist types who designed and built experimental boats to manifest their theory of what would win, the young and intrepid who bet their enthusiasm and ability to endure against experience, lifelong amateurs who simply wanted to be a part of the first iteration of what they thought would be the next big thing. The starting line had production trimarans, high-tech racing sailboats, and outrigger canoes, kayaks, Hobie catsa glorious menagerie and a starting line like no other. After that first race, many began to view it as "the Iditarod with a chance of drowning."

Abundantly illustrated and written with the same edge that has attracted participants worldwide, this is a book like no other.

Author Bio

Jake Beattie is the creator of the Race to Alaska and author of the website and daily updates. He lives in Port Townsend Washington and is the Executive Director of the Northwest Maritime Center, the non-profit organization behind the R2AK. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington.