A new boat race is being compared to the Iditarod and is bringing boat designers and competitors out from the woodwork for a chance to show off their skills and endurance.

The Race to Alaska is a 750-mile motorless boat race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. The race has very few rules but stipulates that racers can use any propulsion they want except for an engine. That leaves human powered propulsion systems and wind.

Jake Beattie, Executive Director of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, thought up the race.

Beattie said that the goal of the race is to explore different modes of travel on the water that do not include engines, forcing racers to get creative in what they use to travel.

“ We really want to strip it down and put the most control in the hands of the racers. …It’s a chance for people to think about being on the water in ways they haven’t thought of before,” said Beattie.

The race is expected to take racers around 10 days to finish and has two phases. The first portion starts on June 4, in Port Townsend. Racers will travel across the Straight of Juan De Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia on Vancouver Island. There the racers will go through customs. Beattie said the first phase of the race is designed to filter out racers that may have gotten in over their heads (literally) and change their minds. He also wants to break up the overall race to eliminate the customs portion from affecting racers’ progress.

Racers start fresh on June 7 for the second portion of the race: a long 710-mile journey through the heart of the Inside Passage. Racers are sure to face frigid temperatures, storms and a gauntlet of unforeseen danger that will test their endurance and ingenuity.

So far, Beattie reports a motely crew of racers who have applied for the race from paddle boarders and kite boarders, to people planning to oar their way to Alaska in Olympic style oar boats. However, the majority of racers are sail/paddle combination boats or pure sailboats.

Thomas Nielsen and Scott Veirs live in North Seattle and are planning to race R2AK as Team Sea Runner. Pre-manufactured boats simply will not meet their racing needs, and so they have constructed their own 17-foot Polynesian style catamaran. The two named the boat Manu-o-ku. Plans for the boat were taken from a James Wharram design -- a style both the two has experience building. They had to modify the plans a little so that they have shelter during the expedition; they opened the two hulls by building hatches on the tops. The hulls, or bulkheads, provide the two men with storage, shelter during navigation and a place to sleep. They plan to be wearing dry suits most, if not the entire journey. Furthermore, the two plan to switch off every two to four hours, allowing one teammate to sleep or cook while the other sails the boat.

What do they plan to eat?

Well, Nielson said that he plans to drink olive oil because it packs way more energy than Power Bars and, being a liquid, it’s easy to transport. When they are sick of olive oil the team will use a Jetboil secured on the boat using a magnet to cook food and boil water.

If there is no wind, the two have it covered; they plan to use paddles or propel the boat with a pedal driven propeller doctored up from old bicycle parts.

Nielson is an architect and project manager, and Veirs is an environmental scientist. They both have been sailing their entire lives and are drawn to the race for different reasons.

“There have been lots of these things I’ve wanted to check out with my boat, but we always default to another four stroke engine… It (the race) provides the opportunity to think about human propulsion in different ways and proposals like the Canadian oil tar and the coal export proposals active both in Canada and here. The race poses this opportunity to raise awareness about those proposals and their potential marine environmental impact,” said Veirs.

Veirs is currently studying how loud commercial ships are under water.

Nielson, once active in the Canadian Coastguard, has led a life of adventure and ingenuity. He said that what draws him to the race is the challenge it poses in engineering and physicality. Plus he wouldn’t miss the chance to sail in the beautiful waters of Alaska and Canada. He joked that he plans to just keep sailing and not stop in Ketchikan.

Indeed, another racer shares Nielson’s intrigue; Joe Bersch is also on a team that is constructing a boat for the race. With the help of Paul Bieker, a regional boat designer, and builder, Russell Brown, his team is constructing a 24-foot Bieker Proa.

Bersch lives in Broadview and has a background in commercial fishing. He has been sailing most of his life, but is used to sailing on a pure sailboat like his friend’s 44-foot Rip Tide named Dark Star.

The Proa is being custom built for the race, and is a multi-hull boat, following a Southern Pacific style. As for propulsion, the boat has a custom-built pedal driven propeller, however Bersch says that their racing strategy is heavily reliant on the wind.

Bersch’s teammate, Dalton Bergan, is 34 and has trained with the Olympic sailing team. Bergan says that the rowers and paddlers might have a good start but that the sailing teams should prevail.

“It should be a real interesting race. I think the rowboats will get a head start because it might be calm for the first third of the race -- it should be pretty light air and then pick up toward the end right as the rowers are wearing out.”

The team is still looking for sponsors and plan to race for the benefit of two charities.

So far there are at least 15 teams bound for Alaska, and Beattie is happy to see people being inspired by his race. He said that one of the reasons he put the race together was to gather awareness for simply being on the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

“If someone can go to Alaska on a paddle board, you can do a lot with what you have and can have the same sense of adventures in any size boat, “said Beattie.

For more information about the race visit http://racetoalaska.com.