Northwest Maritime Center’s non-sailing adventure race Seventy48 (results here) saw a record number of entries and new elapsed time record. How do folk row and paddle that fast? Here’s the recap from race headquarters and a few photos:
SEVENTY48: 2022 RECAP
In 2021, Puget Sound was vindictive—less than half of the teams rang the finish bell—enough so, that we were flummoxed at the record number of teams enlisting for 2022, until we saw names, like Paddle On…Paddle On, Ted, Bad Rabbit, and Get Kraken; all back for another try. We knew a grudge match was brewing. Puget Sound clearly had been doing burpees for a year and was ready. More like a race through a water park, rain drove through the Gore-tex layers and even the start line held sodden eagerness in every eye. We stood on the dock yearning to utter the now-familiar benediction. Namaste racers. But it was not time for that. It was time to Namasgo. And Namasgo quickly.
89 teams crossed the finish line in Port Townsend with Team Imua taking line honors and setting a new SEVENTY48 record of 9h 35m. Team Wave Forager set the solo record of 9h 39m, and Teams like Get Kraken avenged their 2021 losses—a favorite line uttered by a team was, “I gotta stop, so my daughter will still want to hang out with me in the future.”
Every team’s worst moment is different and personal, but all involve one of the universal three: broken gear, broken body, or broken spirit (preferably not more than one at a time). The inverse is avoiding those three. However, what makes success will always be philosophically and/or drunkenly debated. Second-guessing will be rampant because we are human, loving to nag on ourselves and others. The only unifying point of all the seesaw of emotion and vociferous debate is this; 116 teams decided to line up on June 10th and put their best and worst to the test. Without that kind of risk—the kind that leaves you raw and vulnerable, scared and hopeful, daring and adventurous—all our lives would be dimmer sadder copies of ourselves. And we’d have nothing to talk about today. Huzzah to the racers of SEVENTY48. We’ll always want you to stay, but will always ask you to go.
HERE ARE THE 2022 SEVENTY48 CLASS WINNERS:
First Overall: Team Imua. 9hrs 35mins
By Yourself: Team Wave Forager. 9 hrs 39 mins
Facing Forward: Team Boat. 11 hrs 6 mins
Standing Up: Team KrugerSEA. 14 hrs 12 mins
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.