The High Seas Drifters were crowned the champions of the first-ever Washington360 race.

The Olson 30 monohull sailboat rounded Point Hudson shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday, June 10, less than four days after the start of the race.

Race officials had allotted a total of two weeks for competitors to finish the course, which ran from the South Puget Sound, near Olympia and as far north as Point Roberts before returning to the finish line in Port Townsend.

Sailors Shad Lemke, Mark Bostrom, Scott Wood, and Jefferson Franklin needed less than half of that time to reach the finish line and be greeted by a crowd of cheering onlookers on the Port Townsend waterfront.

After arriving at the Northwest Maritime Center’s dock, the Team High Seas Drifters rang the famous bell — used in previous years by participants in the R2AK to signify their completion of the arduous race.

Race Boss Daniel Evans handed over the team’s prize, a championship belt the likes of which would be right at home resting on the shoulder of Hulk Hogan.

So how does one feel after completing a two-week race in less than four days?

“Tired,” Franklin replied in a tone that was anything but glib.

With the race now safely behind them, the newly-crowned champions pondered what they should have brought along for the ride.

“More gummy bears,” Wood said.

“More bushings for the pedal drives,” Franklin said.

“We would like to have known that was broken from the start. We started and went ‘Oh, there’s a problem’ and we had to figure it out on the fly. We rebuilt it four or five times,” he added

“It sounded like a blacksmith’s shop under the cabin,” Wood chimed in. “With him just hammering away without the tools he needed.”

The conditions even saw the sailors cannibalizing other parts of their boat to repair their pedal drives.

“The last bushing we made, we cut down the handlebars off the seats and that one lasted for a long time,” Franklin said.

There was general consensus among the crew that the High Seas Drifters all worked well together as a team.

“We all got along good and sailed hard together and relied on each other,” Wood said.

“We took care of each other,” Franklin said.

“There was a lot of skill in this boat,” Bostrom added.  

As to whether the High Seas Drifters would be making a triumphant return for another WA360, Lemke calmly said, “Sailor’s amnesia has to set in first, then we’ll figure it out.”

The beleaguered seafarers all shared a laugh.

Lemke also had advice for any future competitors: “Not do what we did. They should train.”

Just behind the first-place winners were Team Fressure (Justin Hinchcliffe, Casey Pruitt, Andrew Bly, and Charles Boremann) and Team Lake Pend Oreille Yacht Club (Gabe Mills, Jason Taft, Jon Totten, and Ben Price).

As Team Fressure’s Merit 28 cruised past the finish line, Boremann stood on the foredeck and held a thumb and index finger to eye level, “We were this close,” he chuckled.  

“We stuck together and we didn’t kill each other,” Pruitt said, prompting an incredulous response from Boremann.

“Well, we came close,” Boremann said.

Pruitt said one crucial oversight served to hinder their progression as they neared the Bellingham race marker.

“When you’re thinking about doing something, just do it, don’t wait until later,” Pruitt said in his advice to future competitors.

“We thought about fixing the chain tension and we didn’t do it, because I hadn’t slept in 24 hours,” he recalled.

“We said, ‘We’ll get that later, we’re sailing, it’s fine.’ We skipped a cog, and here we are, we were fixing the seat, fixing the pedal drive; and then those guys are winning!”

The team said future competitors should plan to get plenty of exercise in advance and remain resilient in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  

“We were behind by 20 boats at one time and we were ahead of all of them at another time,” Boremann said. “Constantly changing positions.”

Light winds in the first days of the race placed a premium on human-powered propulsion — like the pedal drives aboard the early finishers’ boats.

Race organizers have even gone as far as calling the race a 360-mile “floating bike race, punctuated by spinnaker runs.”

As of Tuesday morning, a stalwart handful of racers were still toughing it out, making their way across the course, little-by-little. They still have plenty of time to complete the race before the June 21 cut-off.

To follow these determined racers on their journey and check daily updates from the race organizers, visit nwmaritime.org/follow-wa360/