RACE TO ALASKA: Friday Harbor boat maintains commanding lead

Published 4:00 pm Sunday, June 21, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Northbound Nutters, a trimaran out of Friday Harbor, continues to build on its commanding lead in the Race to Alaska, roughly 100 miles ahead of its nearest competitor.

As of 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Northbound Nutters was located in the open ocean off the northern tip of Aristazabal Island of British Columbia, more than halfway to Ketchikan, Alaska. Its nearest competitor had yet to check in at Bella Bella, B.C.

Northbound Nutters is crewed by Nigel Oswald, Gavin Brackett, Michael Holt and Rob Woelfel. The boat is a Farrier F-32 Super Race Carbon trimaran with a 51-foot sail to produce additional speed. And it’s working.

The Race to Alaska is a non-motorized race between Port Townsend and Ketchikan. There are various types of sailboats, kayaks and rowboats powering their way up to Ketchikan. A total of 67 boats took off from Victoria, B.C. after surviving the first day.

While it appears nothing stands in the way of Northbound Nutters winning, it appears there is going to be a good battle for second. Wet Leg, a Soverel monohull out of Coupeville, was second Sunday afternoon just south of the Bella Bella check-in point.

In third, roughly five miles south of Wet Leg was Celerity, a Hobie 33 monohull out of Kelowna, B.C. About five miles behind Celerity was Pas Si Vite, an Olson 30 monohull out of Westport, Conn.

Those three boats are well ahead of a pack of vessels just south of Calvert Island.

“About fifteen teams are currently winding their way through Johnstone Strait,” the R2Alaska reported Saturday. “Where conditions have alternated between rowdy and awesome, sometimes with very little warning between the two.

“After the tub-thumping administered to nearly every floating object during the opening days of the race, the southerly that settled in on Saturday was a welcome change. Teams that had spent days getting slapped around suddenly found themselves moving north with something resembling dignity,” the race organizers announced.

There were also multiple sightings Saturday of humpback whales by the race crews.

The top human-power boat was Boogie Barge, a pedal boat from Tacoma, which is taking an interesting shortcut toward Knight Inlet.

Let’s Wing It, a boat from North Vancouver, B.C., is the leading kayaker, just off the coast of Campbell River about three miles ahead of Rainy, another Canadian kayak from Prince Rupert, B.C.

Port Angeles rowboat Lillian Signed up to Suffer, the only local boat, is cruising along Vancouver Island north of Comox.

A total of 65 vessels were still going Sunday afternoon.

To track the boats live, go to https://cf.yb.tl/r2ak2026.