Marty's Travels

My house has wheels

Boats in Port Townsend

Another Race to Alaska commences Monday (see R2AK.com) and I’ll be hanging out tomorrow at the pre-race festivities. But in the meantime, the organizers of that race put another event together called the Seventy48. The idea is strictly human-powered watercraft, no motors or sails, going from Tacoma to Port Townsend in less than 48 hours. It’s 70 miles.

The race started last evening at 7pm, and the first boat across the line was 10 hours later at dawn this morning. I made it down to the finish line at about 9 this morning then stuck around to watch for a while.

Carl Krueger finished shortly after I arrived on his paddleboard. He was the first to complete R2AK on a standup paddleboard two years ago and has become something of a celebrity. I don’t know yet whether he is planning on going to Alaska again on Monday. At any rate, as the first SUP across the line today he won $1500. I took the chance to look at his board, which isn’t really like your typical paddleboard.

The crowd favorite, finishing 21st out of over 100, was Platte County High School from Colorado. Students and teachers built a trimaran that held 18 paddlers. I have no idea how or why a school in Colorado managed to come up with this idea, but pulling it off was certainly an achievement.

Tomorrow I’ll take a look at the entrants for R2AK and then follow it for the next few weeks.