Follow Dogsmile Adventures, a therapeutic sailing nonprofit based on Lake Pend Oreille, as it participates in the 2026 Race to Alaska.
The race covers 750 cold-water miles from Port Townsend, Wash., to Ketchikan, Alaska, using wind and human power.
Dogsmile founder, Capt. Jon Totten, is part of the four-person crew, and said he’s keen to help raise awareness for the powerful impact of therapeutic sailing.
“The Race to Alaska is the perfect spectacle to bring awareness to our mission,” Totten stated. “It’s this beautiful balance of wholesome and wild that aligns perfectly with what we do.”
Team Dogsmile Adventures departed Port Townsend on June 14, racing 70 other vessels to Ketchikan. Their team updates will be available on social media @dogsmileadventures and their progress can be tracked live at r2ak.com.
The other team members are Gabe Mills, Jay Taft and Terry Brinton. They will be racing aboard Mahana, a Corsair F-27 trimaran owned and skippered by Mills.
Team Dogsmile competes in the Race to Alaska. Photo by Sean Trew
“This isn’t our first attempt at R2Ak,” Totten said. “We came up short in 2023, but are back with a fighting spirit inspired by the people we sail with here in Sandpoint. That disabled veteran that sails with us, they didn’t give up, and neither are we!”
According to race organizers, the inside passage to Alaska has been paddled by Indigenous peoples via canoe for centuries, followed by steamboats full of prospectors fighting to beat one another to the goldmines in the Klondike.
The Race to Alaska is rooted in those traditions as North America’s longest human- and wind-powered race. It also boasts the largest cash prize for a race of its kind. First place takes home $10,000, while the second-place prize is a set of steak knives. Finishers enjoy “cathartic elation” simply for completing the course.
But it isn’t for everyone.
“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,” organizers stated. “There are squalls, killer whales, tidal currents that run upward of 20 miles an hour and some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth.”
R2AK is a self-supported race with no supply drops and no safety net. Any boat without an engine can enter.
More at dogsmileadventures.org and r2ak.com.
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