R2AK: Positions Available!
The author idea for a unique craft and group adventure
Article by Mike Smith
Ahoy rowers and frustrated racers! Looking to assemble a crew of able-bodied persons looking to crew with teammates and challenge the R2AK. Let’s buck the trend of solo adventuring and seek the joys of company and shared experiences.
I have plans to assemble an outrageous rowing machine for the inside passage to AK. In bygone eras, boats and crews were much larger. It is only in the last few hundred years that folks took to remote waterways in search of adventure. The earliest were considered off their rockers to ‘go to sea in a boat’ for pleasure. Those going solo are still a little suspect, even today.
If your version of adventuring leans toward sharing with others, this could be your opportunity. Join a new community of rowers, and let’s get this new boat built in time for the next Race to Alaska. Prerequisites: past experience rowing, and have more than passing familiarity with small boats. Willing to row for hours, through cold, wind, sun, calm, adverse currents, whirlpools and rain. Able to not complain about camping food, and camping in a damp sleeping bag on a thin mattress. Positive attitude and team spirit a major plus!
Check out the boat: A hybrid with the best qualities of a whaleboat, a umiak, a dory and a lumberman’s bateau. Proposed name: Atlatl—the throwing spear. An ocean-going rowing shell. Light, long and narrow wins races. At only 5’ wide at the waterline, there is reserve secondary stability with flared gunwales stuffed with air bladders that are above waterline. There is a raised sole plate 12” above the bottom. There are hatches to access the large storage underneath. This sole plate is 5’ wide, and carries the frame for the sliding seats. Under this is a plywood brace that makes a truss chord like an ‘I’ beam full length giving the boat great fore-and-aft rigidity while staying very lightweight.
I believe the boat can be built for around $15,000, so if we started a boat club, and everyone pitched in $1,000, I believe we could have a club boat that everyone would own. We might even start a Kickstarter campaign to pay us back. We would need a place to store it near water after the race. BTW, we should plan on rowing and sailing it back from Ketchikan after the race.
This boat has seven rowing stations and will be rowed by a team of 16 people with great flexibility of shifts; 3 hours on, 3 hours off, and the boat could be rowed 24 a day and everyone can rest. The rowing stations are 6’ long with room for two: one on oars, and the other paddling, or resting with room on each side for sleeping. Personal effects are accessible by hatch to storage under each station [running the full length of the hull.]
There will be square sails when the wind is favorable: anything up to a beam reach. No centerboard: oars can be trailed if needed. The oars are long: up to 17’ long, and will be weighted; balanced on the oarlock for ease of effort.
According to Willis Ansel in “The Whaleboat,” the largest recorded whaleboat was 52 feet long with a 9-foot beam built by James Beetle in 1882. Generally whaleboat length to beam ratios were 5:1. Beetle’s boat would be 5-3/4:1. If we build a 56 foot boat with an 5 foot beam at WL, we reach 11:1. Of course the most extreme hulls are the rowing shells at 60’ long, by 12” wide, reaching a 60:1 ratio, and speeds up to 14 mph. Still, you would never make it across Johnstone Strait. With the extreme flare topside, there is significant secondary stability. Still, a risk of capsize with a strong blast of wind on the beam could catch the increased windage, but should pose no problems bow-on.
The boat weight per crewmember is crucial. It’s a little whimsical to try to pedal power a 5,000 lb. boat at anything over a harbor crawl. If we can keep the weight under 1,000 lbs. loaded, that brings it to just 62 lbs. per rower. That ratio would be hard to beat in a two-person boat that is still seaworthy enough to face the open ocean. Hawaiian Canoes also have a very high length to width ratio, but they are paddled, and paddling is not as fast as rowing [especially with 16’ oars!] You may also remember George Dyson’s 48’ baidarka, Mt Fairweather. Built for six paddlers, the original sketch was for a 60’ monster. George claims 15 knots out Queen Charlotte Straight in the ‘80’s with two people and 150 sq. ft. of sail. Atlatl should be able to carry 300 sq. ft. of sail.
You can see the seven rowing stations with sliding seats. Extra crew in the bow, stern and between rowers can paddle Hawaiian style, or catch a few winks.
This is a 20’ version with a 5’ beam and a sqaresail. Max capacity 6 people.
Additional image links:
Positions available:
Captain [me for the R2AK] I plan on retiring after the race, and passing the baton.
Navigator, Weather Guru, Cook and Able-Bodied Rowers! Please be ready to show your rowing experience if interested. Sound good? Want to hear more? You can reach me at mike@napacottages.com
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If you want to realistically cross the open water sections of Cape Caution and Dixon entrance you're gonna want a real tiller that somebody can throw their body weight against. The mixed direction swell around the border remains the hairiest wave set I've ever sailed through and requires decisive actions on the helm.
Why not a balanced lug instead of a square sail? It would give you more flexibility and some windward capability. You should be able steer with ballast trim by moving the crew fore and aft. The vikings were able to do this to some extent because their ships had external keels.