How two sailors plan to push the limits from the Palouse to Alaska: ‘The goal is to arrive with smiles’
Andy Jacobs spent his childhood as a Puget Sound wharf rat who often tagged along with his father, a commercial fisherman, on summer trips to Alaska. His Pullman home is a final resting place for boats of all descriptions, some seaworthy, others not; he keeps a 27-foot sailboat at a marina south of Seattle. When he’s not messing about in boats, Jacobs is the co-owner of a worker-owned cooperative and provides tech services for other co-ops.
The son of Danish immigrants, Eric Sorensen grew up in New Jersey and charted a different path into the nautical world. He did a few canoe trips in his younger days and often sailed a small dinghy when visiting his in-laws in upstate New York. Now retired, Sorensen had an enviable career in journalism – serving as the Pullman bureau chief for The Spokesman-Review before moving on to the Seattle Times, where he was a science writer and boating columnist.
“My retirement dream was to get a sailboat and keep it in the water,” Sorensen says. He has cruised extensively in Puget Sound and his current boat, Island Drifter, is berthed in Bellingham. For the past three years, he has helped with media duties for the R2AK and similar, shorter races entirely in Washington waters.
After years of watching others in the Race to Alaska, Sorensen wanted in on the action. Now he’s stepping out of the crowd and entering the arena.
The two Pullman men bring impressive skills to this year’s race. Ten years ago, Jacobs built a boat to compete in the R2AK but the rigging failed shortly before the start; undaunted, he repurposed the boat for the Washington 360 adventure race. With a lifetime of maritime experience behind him, Jacobs is a master of the many mechanical, electronic, and other complicated systems aboard ocean-going boats.
If it’s broken, Andy can probably fix it.
“He understands all those systems really well,” John Fisher, co-owner of the Grey Dawn, said admiringly, “which makes him the best guy you could possibly own a boat with.”
“The biggest wild card we currently have is the pedal drive,” Jacobs said, noting that a flexible metal shaft will harness the power of two pedal-drive units to spin a 16-inch-propellor originally designed for model airplanes. The flexi-shaft on Version 1.0 wasn’t robust enough and it sheared in two, so a beefier drive shaft is now in place and burnt offerings are being offered up to the gods.
“I know of one team that was doing open-heart surgery on their pedal drive, on the dock, the night before the start,” Sorensen said. “We definitely don’t want to be doing that.”
Assuming it reaches the finish line in Ketchikan, the Grey Dawn will need to turn around and head back to Washington when the race is over. To make the return leg easier, Jacobs – the old Alaska hand – plopped the boat’s propane-fired engine onto a shipping pallet, wrapped it in plastic, then sent it ahead on a barge. The cost was minimal, around $200, and re-installing the engine in Ketchikan will be child’s play for a man of his abilities.
Sorensen, Fisher, Tara Watkins and possibly Jacobs will staff the return leg of the voyage.
Though he doesn’t have the depth of maritime experience that Jacobs has, Sorensen is a thoughtful, measured guy with a keen eye for analysis. Perhaps more importantly, he is an uncommonly good baker and cook. He’s working up recipes for low-nausea meals because when his teammates are trying to sleep in the cabin, no one wants the ratatouille to re-emerge.
“We’re not going to push hard at night,” Jacobs said, “and the goal is to arrive with smiles on our faces.”
“My goal is to start as friends, finish as friends, and see some amazing places along the way,” added Sorensen.
Editor’s note: Writer William Brock introduced Sorensen and Jacobs to one another. He is a good friend of both men.