WA360 is making a very triumphant return to the waters of the Salish Sea this weekend, and the fun meter is about to hit the red. Here’s some stuff to know!

On Saturday June 28 (tomorrow at the time of this post) at 11am on Port Townsend Bay, the biggest, weirdest, and best fleet of boats ever assembled for a sail/row/pedal/pedal Northwest Maritime adventure race will cross the start line and begin their 360 mile odyssey. With waypoints near Olympia, Deception Pass, Bellingham, and Point Roberts before finishing in Port Townsend, most boat folk around Puget Sound can see boats in person (or from the water, if you get out there for a 3D cheer-fest).

The WA360 crew has already been winding up some great content, and here are a few of their get-to-know-you dispatches about this joyous adventure armada.

If you’re so moved, head to Port Townsend to holler hooray at the start. Otherwise, follow on social, email, and the tracker, and don’t be shy about taking to the water to meet the fleet! It’s WA360 time, baby.

WA360 RACE START: Saturday, June 28 | 11 AM

FOLLOW THE RACE: Facebook, Instagram, Race Update Emails

LEARN MORE: wa360.org

 

First, a little context from the Race Boss, Jesse Wiegel:

WA360: The Race that Accidentally Made Everything Make Sense

Race to Alaska and SEVENTY48 are doing just fine, thanks. They’ve got international hype, a cottage industry of waterproof documentary crews, and a crowd of dedicated die-hards consistently finding ways to do it harder, without us even asking.

So why are we booting up another one?

Sure, on paper, WA360 looks like just one more race. But it’s more on purpose—the third point that defines the plane, opens the door wider to the adventure-hungry, and lets each race stand more fully in its own form. WA360 isn’t a side hustle. It’s the long game.

Born in the chaos of COVID, WA360 was our answer to a locked border and a shut-down world. No Canada? No problem. We mapped 360 miles of human-and-wind-powered possibility inside Washington’s lines—and figured we’d run it once, maybe twice, then retire it before anyone was the wiser.

But after we got back to R2AKing again in ‘22, the question kept popping up: “When are you running WA360 again?”

It turns out WA360 worked. Not just “barely survived the pandemic and was enough like R2AK to get people through without withdrawals” worked. It clicked! It was tough, beautiful, and just the right size to hook people who were hungry for a challenge but not quite ready to spend three weeks on a bicycle duct taped to a trimaran.

Now it’s growing up. WA360 is no longer the backup plan—it’s the plan. (At least every other year, alternating summers with R2AK.) It’s a race with its own attitude (a little less snarky than its sibling), its own route, and its own reasons to exist. A bruiser of a loop from Port Townsend to Olympia, up through the salty blender of Deception Pass or the surprisingly swift currents of the Swinomish Channel, touching into Bellingham Bay, brushing the Canadian border at Point Roberts before putting on afterburners back to Port Townsend. No engines. No support. Just saltwater, snacks, and a clever way to make sure your VHF doesn’t run out of juice.

WA360 is for the ones who want in—who want to feel the miles in their hands and butt-sores, tired of watching the dot crawl across the map. It’s for racers testing new boats and new tactics. For folks who can’t swing R2AK every year but still want to chase something bigger than a Strava segment. Those who want to push further than SEVENTY48.  It’s where you can race with your kid, your dog, or that one friend who swears it’ll be “mostly downwind.”

WA360 is also for the fans, the volunteers, the person flying a drone from a driftwood stump, and everyone who believes that the maritime world is more than ferry rides and orca sightings. This race belongs to everyone. Every cup of coffee handed to a tired racer, every cheer at the finish, every story passed along in bars, boatyards, and breakfast tables—it all weaves the fabric tighter. WA360 doesn’t just stand on its own; it keeps the whole thing strong. When this community shows up here, it shows up everywhere—for R2AK, for SEVENTY48, for whatever comes next.

 

Racing with a Reason

Not every team shows up to WA360 with a podium in their sights. For some, it’s about honoring a loss, raising a flag for a cause, or just doing something hard with people who matter. And for others, it’s all of that – plus a healthy obsession with going fast. Racing with heart doesn’t mean racing without fire.

Team Ability Experience is paddling in memory of two friends who should still be here. They’re raising funds for The Ability Experience, a nonprofit that creates outdoor challenges and leadership programs for people with disabilities—because adventure shouldn’t have prerequisites. The team’s been doing this kind of work for decades; WA360 is just the latest way they turn sweat into support.

Team Trash Tramp, a solo paddler from Eugene, is coming back with her outrigger Sisyphus—named for the myth, and the relentless task of dragging trash out of the Sound one paddle stroke at a time. She’s light, fast, and fiercely focused on calling attention to the region’s rising tide of plastic. Check out her onboard net with which she spears ocean plastics and hauls them to the recycling plant.

Team Dogsmile Adventures is heading out from Idaho (yes, the landlocked one) with a crew of outdoor educators who believe in the power of saltwater and shared suffering. Their nonprofit takes people on multiday sailing expeditions to help build resilience, confidence, and community through challenge.

Team Guardian Sailing, after turning heads in R2AK, is bringing that same momentum into WA360. Their mission: use high-adrenaline sailing to help veterans and first responders manage PTSD, build confidence, and reconnect with purpose.

For these teams, the finish line is just part of the story. They’re racing for visibility, for causes that matter, for the kind of connection you only get when you’re pushing hard with purpose.

So track them. Back them. And if it gets you thinking, good. That’s kind of the point.

 

R2AK Crossover Teams, presented by R2AK High Command

R2AK Tracker Nation!

It’s been a decade since R2AK’s first hold-my-beer and cross-your-fingers hoo-rah, where the rapscallion fringe launched into Alaska, history, and glorified oblivion. It was epic, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and Covid, and Covid, and again, and again.

What did we do to celebrate our 10th anniversary?

We invited you to see other people. Keep it spicy.

Enter the WA360: Our rotating third and R2AK-ish race from Port Townsend to Port Townsend via Olympia and Point Roberts.

WA360: All of the thrills, none of the Alaska.

Don’t be scared, they’re not all strangers. WA360 made public promises to be a kinder, gentler affair; better smelling, more supportive, with better jokes and 87% less armpit farts. Then they let their guard down and accepted applications from members of the Race to Alaska Hall of Fame.

Gentlemen, start your armpit farts.

Here’s some R2AK crossover talent you can root for/heckle in WA360:

• Fisheries Supply Team Monkey Fist: If you absolutely love our contractually favorite sponsor, proven boats, and the ghost of sock monkey’s past, then you will absolutely like Team Monkey Fist. Olson 30 practicality, R2AK pedigree, test lap in SEVENTY48, and the Best. Sponsor. Ever. (For real though… And go buy something at www.fisheriessupply.com. Right now.)
• Team Accidental Mullet: Two-time R2AK champ Jean Goussev (Sail like a Girl, We Brake for Whales) and crew are at it again. While it might not be intentional, you’re going to want to get in on the front side of this one; that’s where the party’s at.
• Team Boogie Barge: Could they pedal all the way to Alaska? No. Did they almost win the first WA360 until they had to go back and teach 3rd graders? Maybe. Team Boogie Barge has a new crew and a new pedalled contraption. Calm year and they might take it all!
• Team Luff of Bread vs Team Bowl of Sloop: Are you tired of teenagers fighting online? Welcome to Gen Z battling on the water! The guts of both teams finished within hours of each other in R2AK ’24 and now they are out for revenge, redemption, and potentially another word that starts with R.

But wait, there’s more.

Teams Excellent Adventure, Bonesaw, Dogsmile Adventures, Fairly Fleabag II: Return of the Bag, Guardian Sailing, Hold Fast, Jackalope, Lost But Don’t Care, Murder Cats From Mars, Narrows Minded, Narwhal, Old Salts, and Doug mother-lovin’ Shoup with Team Perseverance—the list goes on!

Turns out, the field is thick with R2AK—exactly 87% of them if you don’t fact-check.

Our advice: get over there, get over it, and pay attention.

Enjoy the off-year hall pass, and get your WA360 on. We won’t judge.

R2AK out.

 

Speaking of Crossover, These Teams Warmed up with SEVENTY48

Eight WA360 teams jumped into both races with both feet, staring with the 70-mile human-powered jaunt of SEVENTY48. Consider it a shakeout run. A training montage. A test of their gear, guts, and caffeine strategy

Meet the crossover teams:

Boogie Barge
Veterans of everything we’ve thrown at them. Last year? R2AK. Didn’t make it to Ketchikan, but picked up some hard-won wisdom about sleep deprivation and the limits of MIG welding.

Lost But Don’t Care
Chill, steady, and very much still here. Full R2AK finishers in 2022. Also, the first Corsair trimaran to compete in SEVENTY48.

Meatball Jack
They used to ride a production pedal boat. This year? Built their own machine. Match race with Boogie Barge?

Steak Knives to a Gun Fight aka Monkey Fist
What happens when you strip down a 30-foot monohull and pedal it like a swan boat on steroids? This. It’s bold. It’s weird. It’s happening.

Narrower Minded
Ghislain goes solo—rowing 70 miles before captaining Team Narrows Minded in WA360 with eyes on the win. Pure French ambition.

Pandatrax
SEVENTY48 round three. They’ve tapped out before (Point Jeff ’24), but in ‘23 claimed the much-coveted 67th Place.

Rogue Kayaker and Paddle On… Paddle On
Legally required to race SEVENTY48 at this point. Married duo, racing separately, paddling together, inked with race tattoos. Back for their second WA360. We want that finish line moment this time, you two.

 

The Choose-Your-Own-Rivalry Race

Following WA360 isn’t passive. It’s a commitment and a 2am obsession. It’s a spreadsheet that you pretend is “just for fun” but has color-coded tabs and conditional formatting.

Because while it looks like one, WA360 isn’t a single race—it’s a hundred storylines describing every type of matchup imaginable. Your job is to pick which one you’re betting your emotional well-being on.

And just so we’re clear: spectating WA360 is a full-contact sport. Even if you’re home, alone, in your PJs, upset that the tracker’s leaderboard seems to be inaccurate. Get on the socials. Talk trash. Pick a side and start a fake beef with your cousin from Bainbridge. Stir the pot in the group chat. Declare your zip code superior and refuse to back it up with facts.

If you haven’t already drawn up your brackets in dry erase marker on the fridge, here are a few ways to choose your heroes:

The Hometown Team
Somewhere around 14 Washington counties—and a buffet of waterfront towns—are repping in this year’s race. Pick the team that lives closest to your favorite coffee shop and pretend you’ve always believed in them.

Bonus: Invent a rivalry with whatever town your ex moved to.

The Gear Gambit
Foils vs. hulls. Paddles vs. pedals. A glorified rowboat vs. a carbon-fiber UFO.
Pick your tech allegiance and prepare to be smug or disappointed in equal measure.

Bonus: Side bets on whose pedal drive breaks first.

The Vibe Pick
Find the team with a boat that looks held together by string and badly mixed epoxy. The ones dressed like they took a wrong turn into a boat race from a potluck. If they’re paddling with a broken canoe paddle and an old lacrosse stick, even better.

Bonus: Compose a fight song for this team without using ChatGPT.

The Chaos Draft
Find the team that makes the least sense. The one in a homemade trimaran with mismatched paddles and a tarp for a sail. Pick the boat with the weirdest name, the strangest propulsion, or whose crew doesn’t seem to know each other.

Bonus: If their tracker line winds up looking like a toddler drew it with a crayon. That’s your team now. Ride or die.

WA360 starts soon. Your team is already out there duct-taping a rudder and pretending it’s going fine. Time to pick your storyline, start talking trash, and head to wa360.org to dig into the teams.