The Winners Sail Like a Girl
And the winners are… First Federal’s Team Sail Like a Girl!
The first monohull and the first all-female team to win the Race to Alaska sailed into Ketchikan over the weekend to claim the $10,000 first prize. (Indeed, they are the first women at all on an R2AK-winning boat.) The Bainbridge Island, WA-based Melges 32 with eight women aboard (and various rowing stations and two stern-mounted pedaling stations) completed the 710-mile trek in 6 days, 13 hours and 17 minutes. The main race started in Victoria, BC, last Saturday, June 16. (There was also a 40-mile qualifier from Port Townsend, WA, to Victoria on June 14.)
The women won a video contest put on by First Federal, a bank headquartered on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, earning them the bank’s title sponsorship and financial support. Congratulations to team members Aimee Fulwell, Jeanne Assael Goussev, Allison Dvaladze, Anna Stevens, Haley King Lhamon, Kate Hearsey McKay, Morgana Buell and Kelly Adamson Danielson.
This edition was a slow one, and race committee members with nothing better to do while they awaited arrivals came up with catchy slogans. “Pace to Alaska” and “Canada: nice enough to stay” are our personal favorites.
In second, to claim a set of steak knives, was Team Lagupus, a Canadian Olson 30 with four male crew. By our count there are eight knives in the set, so, if they share equally, they’ll each get two.
In third (and winning only limited bragging rights), was Team Wild Card, a Santa Cruz 27, also with a four-guy crew. See www.r2ak.com, a seemingly endless source of amusement, for more.