By Peninsula Daily News staff and CBC News-Radio Canada and The Associated Press
KETCHIKAN, Alaska — A Seattle-based team in a trimaran has won the inaugural Race to Alaska after reaching Ketchikan from Victoria, B.C., in five days and 55 minutes.
Their prize was $10,000.
But who’ll get the steak knives remains to be seen.
“What we’ve just been through is an amazing test, but also a wonderful opportunity to see some of the truly wild places in the Pacific Northwest,” said Graeme Esarey, a member of the winning 3-man Team Elsie Piddock, after the boat crossed the finish line at 12:55 p.m. Friday.
“We were lucky to have a fast boat and a crew that had sailed together for thousands of miles.”
As Esarey, Al Hughes and Matt Steverson stepped onto Alaskan soil — in this case a wooden dock — race organizer Jake Beattie, executive director of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, was there to greet them with a handshake and the $10,000.
Steverson says he’s not sure what the three men, all veteran ocean racers, will do with the prize money.
“We didn’t do it for the money, bottom line. I don’t think we’ve talked about it.”
The Race to Alaska is a 750-mile race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan via Victoria, with competitors using only motor-less boats.
The racers left Port Townsend on June 4.
And in second place?
Two boats in the race are dueling for the second prize of a set of steak knives.
MOB Mentality, a 28-foot trimaran, and Por Favor, a 33-foot Hobie Cat, were in “a pretty good battle” expected to end on Saturday when one of them reaches Ketchikan.
Eighteen other craft trail them, with a Port Townsend monohull boat, Hexagram 59, having turned back under sail.
The exact order of boats remaining in the pack was a mystery Friday afternoon because the satellite vessel tracker went offline because “we had so many simultaneous log-ins,” said Carrie Andrews, spokeswoman for the Northwest Maritime Center.
Only rower, sailers and paddlers were allowed to compete in the race. None of the entries have motors.
The craft followed no set route on the Inside Passage to Alaska. Of the 75 boats that registered, 53 started the race but only 40 completed the first leg from Port Townsend to Victoria, B.C., with 29 then setting out for Ketchikan.
Team Elsie Piddock raced the 40 miles from Port Townsend to Victoria in 4 hours and 11 minutes, according to the Race to Alaska’s Facebook page.
Rough seas
Esarey says one of the few times he was really scared was when the trimaran was traveling just north of Vancouver Island.
“The seas were rough, and it was blowing hard. Our primary goal at the time was to take care of the boat, take care of ourselves,” Esarey told CBC News-Radio Canada.
“I was really concerned about the boats behind us because we were pretty well prepared and some of those boats were purpose built for the race or built on a budget and there was no support.”
Esarey approached the race as a test against the elements and was prepared to cope with whatever the weather gods threw at his team.
“We wanted to see if this could be done,” he said. “It was a great challenge and a great experience.”
While Esarey has completed the race, he is following the rest of the competition very closely.
“The real adventure for some of those people is yet to come,” he said.
“We have good friends who will be tested and so I hope they stay safe for however long it takes them to get home.”
Little sleep
The sail included sleeping about two hours twice a day, a constant drum of water against pontoons and fish . . . “we ate a lot of fish, salmon and tuna. We did Israeli couscous, and pasta, and macaroni and cheese,” said Steverson.
“Yeah, salmon macaroni and cheese was pretty good, you have to get the recipe from Matt.”
The men and the boat all are from the Ballard area of Seattle.
Elsie Piddock, the winning carbo-fiber trimaran, was borrowed from a friend, whose daughter named the boat after her favorite book, an English children’s mystery-thriller.
