Speaker Series: Race to Alaska - Wednesday 2/28

QCYC Speaker Series Presents: The Race to Alaska

Speaker: Daniel Evans, Race Boss for the R2AK

The Race to Alaska (R2AK) is a boat race covering 750 miles of water from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Alaska along the Inside Passage, with no motors, no support and lots of danger.

It’s in the spirit of tradition, exploration, and the lawless self-reliance of the gold rush that the Race to Alaska was born.

R2AK is the first boat race with this format and North America’s longest human and wind-powered race, and currently offers the largest cash prize ($10,000) for a race of its kind. By the way, if you need to get a feel for the spirit of this race, second prize is a set of steak knives!

Entering its fourth year, some say it’s like the Iditarod, on a boat, with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter, or eaten by a grizzly bear. There are squalls, killer whales, tidal currents that run upwards of 20 miles an hour, and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

We are privileged to have R2AK Race Boss Daniel Evans presenting about what he's learned from taking a pretty bad and risky idea and turning it into a somewhat manageable madhouse. There will be moments of brutal trial and exhilarating triumph as Daniel celebrates and tells tall tales about the heroes this race creates and the somewhat "unique" craft that carry them to victory and more often than not, to defeat.

We'll also be among the first to hear about the newest "spawn" of R2AK: the SEVENTY48, which is a 70-mile human powered race from Tacoma to Port Townsend. We may even have a few members who enter this contest! Even if you don’t ever plan to enter one of these races – and why should you, they’re dangerous!! – come to this Speaker Series, as it will be VERY entertaining. Lots of pictures, videos, tall tales of the sea and the people crazy enough to try this and....if you're one of those overachievers who always need to be prepping for an event (you know who you are!!) go to https://r2ak.com/  and https://www.seventy48.com/ for more info.

About our speaker, Daniel Evans: It takes more than ten grand and a tree to nail it to pull off the Race to Alaska, and Daniel Evans is one of around three people on the planet who has the personal and professional experience to wrangle the exponential chaos potential of more than one hundred free thinking racers hurling themselves and their engineless watercraft against the wilds the Inside Passage. He's in charge of all of the details, makes the hard calls on safety and keeps the R2AK on the rails until everyone either finishes or drops out. They call him the Race Boss because Supreme Leader was already taken.

Before becoming the Race Boss for the R2AK, Daniel's tailor-made resume started with his Alaskan upbringing, decades of teaching and being a trainer for Outward Bound and others, mountain climber, a professional mariner, schooner captain, and even running a volunteer tugboat crew for Port Townsend's annual Wooden Boat Festival. As a cherry on top of his risky resume, he is also the father of a 5-year-old. Oh, and he’s trained at keeping people safe.

Please register on the Event Page so we can get an accurate head count for dinner and seating. We had 165 members at the last Speaker Series....can we beat that record??

Barry Rutten

Chairman, Presentations Committee

Speaker Series Speaker Wrangler