A team from Victoria recently won the eighth running of the longest human and wind powered-race in North America.
On June 17 at 2:36 p.m., Team Malolo won $10,000 by finishing first in the Race to Alaska (R2AK), a 750-mile race where teams travel by engineless boats.
The race is in two stages: The proving ground (stage 1) - 40 miles from Port Townsend, WA to Victoria B.C. and To the bitter end (stage 2) - 710 miles from Victoria to Ketchikan, AK.
This being their third attempt, Team Malolo, featuring skipper Duncan Gladman and crew members Paul Gibson, Becky Kelly, and Matthew Macatee, is the first all-Canadian team to win the treacherous event.
“It is unfinished business for me and for Paul, so I would say that is the most compelling reason for the two of us," said Gladman. "For Becky and Matt, they love adventures and are super competitive. They have listened to both Paul and I and the numerous R2AK stories, so it’s natural that they both said we have to go even though I said never again after 2022.”
At the impromptu awards ceremony two days later, as race tradition, they received the $10,000 nailed to a piece of firewood.
The second place team was more than 90 miles behind Team Malolo when they finished. They received a new set of steak knives for finishing second.
