Boaters start 750-mile race Port Townsend to Ketchikan

The Race to Alaska launched a flotilla north to Ketchikan from Port Townsend, Washington, on Monday.

The 750-mile wind- and human-powered race has two starts: 5 a.m. Monday for the first leg, which organizers call the “The Proving Ground,” and noon Thursday for the second leg, which organizers call “To the Bitter End.”

R2AK advertising is notoriously humorous and full of hyperbole.

One description of the race on its website explains the event as: “It’s like the Iditarod, on a boat, with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter, or eaten by a grizzly bear. There are squalls, killer w...