KUOW73%
This team of Seattle teens prepares for 750-mile race to Alaska 9%
By Noel Gasca0%
6/12/2026, 6:00:47 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Optimism Bias, and Anecdotal, with Overconfidence Bias as the most egregious example at 9.5% saturation with 90 hits. Analysis detected 694 faulty-reasoning hits from 944 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 25.7% and a BS Rank of 9% (19,982 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 91.30% of the article peer group.
Some of the world’s most audacious sailors will race 750 miles from Port Townsend to Ketchikan in this year’s Race to Alaska.
The competition's youngest racers are five scrappy Seattle teens.
The rules of the Race to Alaska are straightforward, and possibly a parent’s worst nightmare.
Your boat can’t have an engine, there’s basically no set course, and rescue is at least several hours away.
But the five teens that make up "Team Darwin's Interns," are undaunted.
For all of them, sailing is more than just an afterschool hobby.
Collectively, the interns' experiences at sailing camps, competing on sailing teams, and teaching others to sail has prepped them to take on the race.
Sixteen-year-old Odin Bjorklund also lives on a boat with his family full time.
"It's one of those races in this area that's not as well-known on the global stage," Bjorklund said.
"I just thought it was a really cool adventure and a really fun challenge."
The team has worked since September to gather supplies and prep the sailboat for the unpredictable conditions they may experience as they travel through the Inside Passage, all while juggling AP classes, tests, and college applications.
One team member, Oliver Laskowski, had to miss final preparations the team was making for the trip so he could attend his high school graduation.
But when the race kicks off at 5 a.m.
Sunday morning, the entire team will have 36 hours to sail from Port Townsend to Victoria, British Columbia, without getting rescued.
From there, they'll sail onwards to Ketchikan, and avoid getting tapped out by a sweep boat.
The "interns" will race with a 27-foot-long sailboat, which the teens bought with $5,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign, individual donations, and grant money.
But a rule set by the Shilshole Bay Marina doesn't allow the sailboat to be moored with five different owners, according to Bjorklund, so the team found a loophole by creating a LLC.
"Our parents collectively own the LLC, 'cause we're too young to own property," Bjorklund said.
Without the "safety net" of an engine, says Henry Thomas, the team will have to put a lot more time and effort into their navigation, and using their physical strength to power a mechanism the 17-year-old has built.
At the stern, sits what Thomas describes as a "bike for the water."
The peddle drive is made of a reclined seat team members can climb onto when the winds die.
As they peddle, a belt drive powers a small airplane propeller welded to the bottom of a stainless steel rod.
The team tested the new design during a practice trip over spring break, 17-year-old Teddy Dodd said.
"On the first night it broke while we were in heavy current, so we ended up going backwards at 3 a.m.," Dodd said.
"We had to wake Henry up to come look at it, and it was broken for the rest of the trip."
Thomas has made several adjustments since the practice run.
The inside of the boat's hull is stuffed with two sleeping cots, tools, navigation equipment, and enough snacks to keep the crew fed for at least 10 days.
The last time Thomas competed in the Race to Alaska in 2024, the sailing conditions were mild: light winds and few storms.
But this year could be "a whole different world."
"Once you get wet, you can't really dry off," Thomas said.
"I want there to be more wind and more weather."
On top of handling a potentially wet journey to Alaska, the team will have to utilize their navigation, safety, and communication skills to stay on top of hazards.
The biggest threat to smooth sailing, the team says, are logs.
"We realized the start on Sunday is a new moon, and represents one of the highest tides of the year," Bjorklund said.
"That's one of the causes of lots of floating debris in the water from the beaches, is those high tides."
While there's no set course in the Race to Alaska, all participants have to make it through two waypoints located along the coastal waterways of the Inside Passage: Seymour Narrows and Bella Bella.
"[Inside Passage] is one of the hardest waterways in the world to navigate with no engine, just because of the currents that go through there," Thomas said.
But that challenge is part of what makes the race unique, and sometimes, hard for people to understand.
But 17-year-old Isa Ford says she's gotten "total support" from her parents since she did her first Race to Alaska in 2024 with her sister.
"My friends who don't sail, I feel like most of the time they're more concerned about the fact that we don't have a bathroom on the boat," Ford said, "or a shower."
If someone does have to use the bathroom, they can use a bucket, Ford explains, or walk up to the bow pulpit.
"You can get situated where you have your like armpits under it, and then you just kind of stick your butt out," Ford said.
"It's definitely not the safest bathroom option, but it's pretty majestical, I won't even lie."
Dodd is blunt when it comes to describing what the boat may smell like by the end of the race.
"When you put five wet bodies in the bottom of a boat with no sunlight for a week, it's like a bacterial experiment," Dodd said.
The team doesn't expect to win the $10,000 prize that comes with making it to Alaska first.
But if they do, they plan to pay back the loans their parents gave them for the race.
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