I have been a big-boat (27–42 feet) sailor for many years and am now enjoying sailing and learning on a smaller platform—my 20-foot-long Liteboat.

I spend my summers sailing in Southeast Alaska.

I just returned from an attempt to sail and row this new craft up the Texas coast, from Port Isabel at the Mexican border northward, with limited success but lots of fun and loads of learning. I describe my journey here: adventuresofcharley.com.

I am looking forward to joining my first Raid and to the camaraderie that is often mentioned in the reviews. I have sailed a big boat and paddled a kayak in the Desolation Sound area, but this will be my first small-boat journey there.

I enjoy long-distance adventures—sailing, bicycle touring, backpacking, and rowing—traveling at less than ten miles per hour. I wouldn’t want to ruin that pace in this Raid, so you speedsters are safe from any challenge.

The Boat

The boat is a 20 foot long Liteboat XP20, originally designed for the Race to Alaska and successfully sailed there. It offers a small cabin for sleeping and with the cockpit tent is quite comfortable for camping.
It only weighs 330 pounds empty and my challenge will be to keep it light and not carry enough supplies to cross the Pacific.

https://www.liteboat.ca/

Team Lugger Nuts, returning for their second year in their boat, Swallow, Drascombe Lugger #801. We’re hoping to take her out with a new (borrowed) sail plan with a larger gaff and drifter to try and catch those light winds we missed last year. Our goal this year is simple: sail more, row less.

Jason

The older, but less-experienced sailor of the Lugger Nuts team, my job is mainly to keep my son from trimming the sails every 10 seconds like we’re in some damned buoy race, and to provide the brawn when the wind fails. I share my son’s interest in small, gaff-riggers; my ideal boat has more sails than a ship of the line, while still managing to fit in a driveway.

Jayden (aka Traffic Cone)

My name is Jayden, a kid who found a bathtub in an alley and thought he could sail it. Fortunately, he was right. I’ve been sailing for 6 (I think) years, in an optimist dinghy, and now in a Drascombe Lugger with my dad. I love camp sailing, and failing to camp sail, and I also race!

Team Oaracle is Janice Mason and Ian Graeme — long-time adventure partners who don’t know how to say no to physical discomfort and human-powered suffering. We’ve completed the Race to Alaska (R2AK) together three times in our rowboat and kayak, yet still genuinely enjoy each other’s company. This summer, we’re looking forward to the more civilized pace and the camaraderie of the Barefoot Raid. Between us we have backgrounds in rowing, paddling, swimming, and sailing. We like to train hard, pack light, laugh often and believe that forward motion, however slow, is a beautiful thing. Our racing style is steady, stubborn, and fueled by coffee, dark chocolate and optimism.

The Boat

Our Liteboat XP20 is a simple, light-weight adventure cruiser designed by Sam Manuard and inspired by the R2AK. She has a ballasted centerboard, sliding seat rowing station, unstayed mast, boomless mainsail and “luxury accommodations” for two.

https://www.liteboat.ca/

Kilian has been sailing Sylvia up and down the Salish Sea for the past 10 years. Megan hopped on board in 2017 as crew and hasn’t looked back. We call Denman Island home but are happy anywhere in the woods and on the coast!

The Boat

Sylvia is a 15′ Gartside 148 with gunter rig. She was built by Kilian and team in the final year of the Silva Bay Boat School, launched in 2011.

I got into dinghy cruising late in life and have been doing it for a couple years now. I did an 8 day trip in the Broughton Archipelago last summer with 3 friends in two other small boats. That was the highlight of my dinghy cruising so far. We are another long trip this summer.

The Boat

I decided to get into dinghy cruising by building my own Long Steps, designed by John Welsford. It took me 2.5 years to build and I launched it April 2024. It is a cat yawl 19.5 ft long, 5.5 wide, with a lug main sail. I use 9.5 ft oars I made myself as secondary propulsion, motor.

Long Steps

Having grown up in one of BC’s finest coastal communities (never mind which one), Dylan built his Newfoundland Trap Skiff while a student at SBSS.  Having crewed aboard “Dick Smiley” in the ‘15 R2AK, and many raids since, Dylan is returning with his crew of elite seafarers whoever they may be..

The Boat

Traditional lug rigged ketch when the wind is blowing, and rice, bean and rum powered four legged water strider when it aint.

A Newfoundland trap skiff is a sturdy, open wooden fishing boat traditionally used along the rugged coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. Built for working in cold, rough North Atlantic waters, it has a wide beam for stability, a flared bow to shed spray, and a flat or slightly rounded bottom that makes it steady at rest—perfect for hauling cod traps and nets. Typically rowed by two people, the trap skiff is simple, tough, and deeply practical. It’s an icon of Newfoundland’s inshore fishery—humble, hardworking, and perfectly suited to rocky coves and foggy mornings.

The Boat

Hobie TI, is a two person sailing kayak with outriggers and a pedal drive system. Carries up to 600 lbs. Tested on the Everglades Challenge.

The Boat

She is an oversized bathtub toy with beautiful sails and a lovely name.

This is what our AI overlords think Emily’s boat will look like…

This will be our third raid. I’ve sailed since I was 4 years old on an opti.
Reasonably experienced racer but still learning about the whole seamanship thing. Anchoring still stresses me out and I’ve been known to misread the tide table.

The Boat

The Diam 24 is a 24-foot trimaran. It was designed in France by VPLP Design and built by French builder ADH Inotec
The Diam 24 is built for speed. It regularly exceeds 14 knots upwind in good breeze and can go much faster downwind under gennaker.
However… in August there’s usually no “good breeze”, so we will likely be drifting with the current, glued to the water, struggling to make it move with our paddles.

We camp onboard by putting a tent on the trampoline. This year, I’m hopping to add a hatch so we can actually store something inside!

This is what happens when you don’t wake up for the tide…

Diam 24 One Design

This will be my third time in the Raid, but the first with “crew” on my boat. Martine is coming along this time, and she keeps talking about how she’ll likely need to tow my boat with a kayak. (She knows me too well.)

The Boat

As I submit this form, my R2AK hopes are hanging by a thread. IF I get in for 2026, then I’ll have returned from some form of R2AK adventure in this boat. If I DON’T get into R2AK, then look for me to have a metric tonne of something to prove. Prove what, I don’t know.

Anyway… the boat: It’s a Boston Whaler Supercat 17. A beach cat, it was the designers answer to the fact that Hobie 16s have a tendency to pitchpole. So these hulls are eliptical in cross section, with lots of reserve buoyancy up front.

Oh… and I’m not using stretchy standing rigging like last year’s raid.