Royal Huisman Sloop

A legendary yacht, ALASKA EAGLE (ex FLYER I) was designed and built for the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race, which she won.  Designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built by the Royal Huisman shipyard, this extraordinary vessel is ideally suited for high latitude expeditions or offshore voyages to remote coasts and islands.  Her layout on deck and below speaks to what really happens at sea and what is needed to keep sailors safe and comfortable.  Despite her heavy displacement, she is a joy to sail and is fast enough to enter races along the way, as she did in the 1999 Sydney-Hobart, placing 5^th out of 12 in a rugged race that saw 30 boats withdraw.  

Owned by the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship for the last 30 years, ALASKA EAGLE has been constantly upgraded to meet the demands of a sail training program that has taken approximately 3,000 students on voyages that ultimately totaled more than 300,000 miles.  Landfalls, most repeated over the years, included Europe, Australia, Central and South America, New Zealand, Antarctica, the Caribbean, Alaska, and hundreds of Islands including favorites: Pitcairn, Macquarie, Tasmania, Easter Island, South Georgia, Clipperton, New Caledonia, Fatu Hiva, Minerva Reef, Fair Isle, and Robinson Crusoe.  She has provided escort and communications services for most Transpacific Yacht Races since 1983 and has made 40 crossings between the mainland and Hawaii.  

ALASKA EAGLE has been primarily skippered and managed by the same husband and wife team for three decades. Their knowledge, skill, and dedication is reflected in the vessel’s many upgrades, current condition, and her unblemished record of safe voyaging.

Now home after a 12 month, 23,000-mile voyage around South America and then out to Hawaii and back, ALASKA EAGLE is recently out of the yard and ready for her next mission.

ALASKA EAGLE holds US Coast Guard Certification as a Sailing School Vessel or as a Passenger Vessel.  The route permitted is Oceans, with no navigation restrictions.