{"id":79572,"date":"2024-10-07T12:37:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T16:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=79572"},"modified":"2024-10-09T15:16:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T19:16:29","slug":"small-catboat-won-adventure-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/small-catboat-won-adventure-race\/","title":{"rendered":"How A Small Catboat Won Its Biggest Adventure Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Adam Cove om his catboat\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/06.17-08_edit.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Race to Alaska soloist Adam Cove progresses up the 750-mile course on his Marshall Sanderling catboat.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Taylor Bayly<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>As the white blades of his \u00adsculling oars dipped and swept the pristine waters of the Strait of Georgia, Adam Cove was having fleeting second thoughts. He was barely a day into the adventure\u2014no-\u00adengine-and-no-support 750-mile Race to Alaska. His plan to row his 2,800-pound 18-foot Marshall Sanderling cat boat <em>Wildcat<\/em> through a set of islands and \u00adfarther offshore in search of wind had backfired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }<\/style><div class='embed-container'><iframe src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1C5skp2SA_0' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe wind was forecast to be there,\u201d he says. \u201cI got out there after rowing for six hours because the wind had died inside, but there was no wind out there either. And then the current turned and I was 3&nbsp;miles out, so I just started \u00adrowing harder to get close to the coast. That was a brutal 8 hours straight of rowing, and by the time I reached anchorage, I said, \u2018I still have another 660&nbsp;miles to go\u2014this is going to be a long&nbsp;race.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was an R2AK baptism by agony for Cove on his first attempt at the biennial race, but he was prepared for it. There would be no quitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Race to Alaska\u2019s course winds mostly along the rugged Canadian coastline, with a start in Port Townsend, Washington, and a finish in Ketchikan, Alaska. There is a 40-mile qualifying leg from Port Townsend to Victoria, British Columbia, which essentially thins the herd, and Cove aced that section. What \u00adfollows, however, is the far more testing 710-mile stretch to Ketchikan, which takes the fleet first through Seymour Narrows, revered for its swift currents and capricious winds. Then there\u2019s a long open stretch across Queen Charlotte Sound with a mandatory checkpoint in a town called Bella Bella in British Columbia. From Bella, it\u2019s into the open waters of the Hecate Strait, dodging logs, debris and wildlife. How, where, and when competitors stop to rest, replenish, or escape adversity is entirely up to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The eclectic fleet of \u00advessels that now gathers every other year is not all sailboats or \u00adnecessarily oceangoing, and the adventurers themselves are equally unique. Cove generalizes his fellow \u00adcompetitors as \u201cvery hyped-up, athletic, excited and a cool crowd.\u201d He fit in well among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lemans start from Victoria on June 12 sent Cove on his way, meandering through islands, rowing until the reaches of Seymour Narrows, the race\u2019s first true proving point. \u201cThis is the area that everyone talks about,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t sail through at night; you don\u2019t sail&nbsp;through with the full current. You&nbsp;wait for the slack tide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, by the time he \u00adapproached Seymour at 3 a.m., he had the full embrace of the current to carry him through. \u201cI hit 12 knots over ground, with 4&nbsp;knots of wind, which might be a record for a cat boat,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was wild. There were whirlpools everywhere, and the boat made three complete 360s going through there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"Adam Cove racing to Alaska\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/race-to-alaska.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Cove\u2019s meticulous preparation ensured his \u00adarrival at the finish without any \u00adbreakages, and in record time.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Adam Cove<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>Now roughly two and a half days into the race, Cove and his <em>Wildcat<\/em> had devoured a good bit of the course, and only once he was flushed through the Narrows was he able to make his first respite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI rode the current until it pretty much stopped, then pulled over and slept for about four and a half hours,\u201d he says. \u201cI woke up in a beautiful little cove, and when the current switched, I jumped back out there again and continued racing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahead, he says, was the most treacherous part of the course\u2014Johnstone Strait, a half-mile-wide sluice with high mountains and roaring winds that funnel through the straight one way or the other. For Cove, it was all uphill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had 26 hours of short-\u00adtacking between the shorelines,\u201d he says. \u201cYou try to fight the current as long as you can, but eventually it wins. The real challenge is there\u2019s not a lot of places to pull over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He did eventually sniff out a place to shelter\u2014a shallow spot behind a pile of rocks\u2014dropped anchor, and hoped for the best. \u201cI was so tired, but I went for it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe best part was, when I woke up in the morning, the current had switched, so all I had to do was pull up the anchor. I already had my centerboard up, being a cat boat, so I just drifted over the rocks and kept going\u2014another cat boat advantage I hadn\u2019t considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cove\u2019s choice of a Marshall 18 cat boat for the race was a suggestion from his wife, and a family connection at Marshall Cat Company boatyard in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was just the source he needed to line up the adventure. Over one long New England winter, he set about preparing the boat with the help of family and industry contacts, stripping 120 pounds of old bottom paint, renewing the brightwork, replacing portlights and rudder hardware, blocks and lines, adding a third-reef into the sail, and installing a sophisticated Raymarine electronics package. The biggest project was custom building a rowing station with a sliding seat, which proved to be time well spent.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After pinballing through Johnstone Strait, Cove presumed that the worst of the course was behind and that it would be smooth sailing to Ketchikan. But he was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI got to the other side saying, \u2018I\u2019m ready to be out of here,\u2019 but then I was right into 6- to 7-foot breaking waves. Every single wave, I was taking on water. I\u2019d hit the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When racing solo, misery\u2019s company is oneself, but Cove was relishing the torment. It was exactly what he\u2019d signed up for. \u201cI\u2019ve done a fair amount of \u00adoffshore racing, and everyone always builds the offshore side to be that much harder,\u201d he says. \u201cIn coastal racing like this, especially if you\u2019re singlehanded, there are so many more things to hit. This was something I had pushed myself to do. And I was up for that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He did tuck his third reef twice, to what amounted to a small triangle of sail, which he says was a big consideration when preparing for the race. \u201cFiguring out that balance and how to compensate for the large rudder and the weather helm. We found it made a big difference putting a lot of forward rake on the mast. That moves the center of effort forward on the sail quite a bit. So up to 10 knots, it\u2019s actually a balanced helm, which is crazy that we could achieve that on a cat boat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"Heading upwind\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/upwind_edit.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\"><i>Wildcat<\/i> heading upwind.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Adam Cove<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>His Starlink terminal proved to be an essential piece of equipment for sending media for the boat, but also for relaying conditions and information to his fellow competitors scattered about. \u201cEveryone supports one another through the race,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want everyone to be successful and to keep sailing because there really are limited rescue resources up there. The Coast Guard is close, but when you consider the water temperatures, by the time they get to you, you\u2019re likely dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cove predicted that he would do the race in two weeks or so, and had plenty of freeze-dried food and supplies to get him to Ketchikan\u2014in hindsight, he was way overprovisioned. And as much as he was racing to win, the reason why he chose a cat boat over a quicker vessel like a trimaran or sportboat was to allow him more time in the elements, to savor the journey that much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe biggest highlight of the race is just being able to \u00adappreciate the scenery around us and overcoming the challenge,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just absolutely \u00adgorgeous throughout the entire course. It\u2019s tough to beat \u00adanything on that level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\" style=\"font-size:30px\">\n<p><em>\u201cI got to the other side saying, \u2018I\u2019m ready to be out of here,\u2019 but then I was right into 6- to 7-foot breaking waves. Every single wave, I was taking on water. I\u2019d hit the wall.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He had three goals when he set out from Port Townsend: to finish the race, to be the first \u00adsinglehanded boat to finish, and to finish inside of 14 days. \u201cI realized kind of through the course rather quickly that I was exceeding all of those goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then came the final miles, which felt much like the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten miles from the finish, the once-30-knot wind that was scooting him to Ketchikan faded to zephyrs, and then the current turned hard against him. \u201cI felt like the finish might as well be 100 miles away, so I rowed as hard as I could to port. I was about 15 feet away from shore and caught a back current, and rode that for about 5 miles until I got to the last channel turning into Ketchikan. The current was against me again, and I just powered through it. It was super frustrating, and it just turned into pure determination. I was like: \u2018I gotta finish this race. I\u2019m so close right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Cove stepped ashore to ring the symbolic finish bell, as per tradition, he was well inside his 14-day target at 10&nbsp;days, 22 hours, 26 minutes. Better yet, he had broken the singlehanded monohull record by more than two days and was the race\u2019s fastest monohull ever, under 20 feet. A true vindication of his craft of choice. \u201cIt ended up being the perfect boat,\u201d he says. \u201cI had all the shelter I needed, and I was shocked at how fast that boat was. There was one night, going downwind with the centerboard up, where I was surfing waves and doing between 8 knots and 9.2 knots for hours on end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it would seem logical for Cove, a marine consultant and technical editor for <em>SAIL<\/em>, based in Massachusetts, to write some definitive guide to preparing for and winning the race, you can count on that never happening. \u201cA few of us casually talked about that with the race organizers,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they said that it\u2019s probably best that we don\u2019t do that because it\u2019s fun for everyone to learn on their own. It\u2019s the sharing among each other that builds the community. Don\u2019t make it too easy to get\u2014make them come to you and talk, because that\u2019s a big part of it, becoming part of the R2AK&nbsp;family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Cove took on the 2024 Race to Alaska with a Marshall Sanderling Catboat and found it was the perfect craft for an imperfect race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":79576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[159],"tags":[2954,177,178],"class_list":["post-79572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-print-fall-2024","tag-racing","tag-sailboat-racing"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}