It happened.
Seventy miles. Forty-eight hours. Hundreds of humans, dozens of boats, and a laser-focused push from Tacoma to Port Townsend.

SEVENTY48 2025 came in hot. Not a scorcher, but a classic spring heat wave—quietly intense and cloudless. While shoreside, Safeways quietly ran out of sunscreen; paddlers sipped electrolytes like fine wine and pushed through weather—turning drysuits into slow cookers.

SEVENTY48 always has wind. It’s practically a co-sponsor. This year? Northwesterlies. Persistent, unhelpful, and gusting up to 16-18 on Saturday afternoon. More than 40 teams wisely pulled up on beaches, dug into their snack reserves, and waited it out rather than run their tanks dry before the final push.

Currents also did their usual thing—clashing with wind at unpredictable intervals, turning Puget Sound into a frothy blender of whitecaps and low morale. Not catastrophic, just slow. The kind of conditions where progress is measured in inches and muttered expletives.

And yet, speed still happened.

Team Tritons didn’t just win, they delivered a surfski masterclass, unseating two-time champs Team Beasts from the East with a finish time of 10 hours, 9 minutes—a dead tie with the inaugural race record, and just 34 minutes shy of the all-time fastest finish. Smooth. Ruthless. Sans sunburn.

Adventure-racing solo-king Ken Deem of Team Wave Forager took the “By Yourself” crown once again, finishing in 11 hours 12 minutes.

Team We Are A Laughing Roomba won the "Facing Backwards" prize (also once again), and is in the running for “Most Unexplainable Team Name.”

Team Jules, fastest on a SUP, took home cash and calf cramps in the “Standing Up” category.

But the race isn’t just about cash winners. It’s about the match races and dumb ideas.

Over in the pedal boat race, it was Team Meatball Jack’s race… until it wasn’t. A scenic route choice between Foulweather Bluff and the Port Townsend Ship Canal gave Team Boogie Barge a final-minute lead. The fastest pedal boat was decided by sixty seconds. The rematch between these two teams starts in just three weeks when WA360 kicks off.

Like Team The Captain, The Engineer, The Biker and Bilbo—a full family unit who stopped mid-race for a real meal and opted to call it there. Sometimes, victory is a cheeseburger and four people who still like each other.

Or Team Steak Knives to a Gunfight, the first (and maybe only ever?) sailboat to finish SEVENTY48. No sails, just an unholy alliance of pedals, paddles, a towing kayak, and eleven people aboard an Olson 30 watching movies between shifts. Legends.

There was a rogue six-foot ship wake that flipped Team Swedish American Yacht Club end-over-end near Point No Point (he’s fine, the boat… less so). There was a Saturday morning sunrise so transcendently perfect it made teams stop paddling just to stare slack-jawed at the sky. There were midnight showtunes shouted from Team Gallagher Big Canoe as they rowed past Blake Island like a Broadway-powered longship.

And then there was the finish.

Cheering crowds. Cowbells. Snacks. And unforgettable moments, like when 82-year-old Mari Friend of Team Friendship, solo rowing into the beach, body giving out, heart still pushing, was lifted from her boat to a hero’s welcome—cheers, hugs, and enough inspiration to fuel next year’s race.

Volunteers were everywhere—official and rogue alike. At the start line, the finish line, and in secret pastry-distribution cells at Fay Bainbridge State Park. Without them, this would be chaos. With them, beautiful chaos.

And so the long wait for SEVENTY48 2026 begins when a new cohort of teams grace the starting line—inspired by the feats of those who’ve come before.

Perhaps you’ll be among them?

Here are the 2025 SEVENTY48 winners:

First Overall: Team Triton, 10hrs 9mins
By Yourself: Team Wave Forager, 11hrs 12mins
Facing Backwards: Team We Are A Laughing Roomba, 14hrs 41mins
Standing Up: Team Jules, 16hrs 15mins

Olympic Outdoor Center Random Hero Award: Team Ballard Bullies
1/8th of the purse and a $250 gift certificate. We took all the names of the teams that finish and threw them in a hat and drew one lucky winner.

Got a great photo or video of the race? Email it to communications@nwmaritime.org, or DM (direct message) or tag us on Facebook or Instagram. We'll share it with our fans (and give you credit).