Japan Yacht Rally 2025

Konpira Consulting organized the second Japan Yacht Rally in 2025. Held from March 14 to June 1, it helped cruisers make the most of their short time in Japan while heading to Alaska. We certainly had a fun time organizing the event and the participants definitely seemed to enjoy themselves.

In the end, five boats joined the Rally – Bellamare (USA), Hoptoad (USA), Horizon (USA), Manaia (Switzerland), and Manevai (France). In addition, Kanaloa (UK) had planned to join, but they were late getting to Japan, managing to join the midway rendezvous at Iki Island but then dropping out in order to spend more time in Japan. And Gannet (Poland) intended to do the last half of the Rally as part a Japan circumnavigation, but they were forced to cancel after having mechanical problems on the way to Iki.

The Rally started at Yonabaru Marina in Okinawa, with some boats arriving quite early and others arriving just in time, depending on the weather encountered along the way. At Yonabaru, participants received an orientation on cruising Japan and binders with detailed moorage information for the 600NMs passage to Iki Island. After three days of Okinawa activities, they set sail for Iki, sometimes meeting up along the way and sometimes going off the beaten path to make their own discoveries. Then, after three days at Iki and getting another binder of moorage information, they headed to Otaru, Hokkaido, about 1,000NMs away.

Following are some of the JYR2025 highlights.

Okinawa

• Appetizer Boat Tour: Each boat made one or two appetizers and then everybody moved from boat to boat about every 30 minutes. Lots of awamori (Okinawa distilled liquor) consumed. It was a great opportunity to get to know each other and to check out the boats (very different from one another but each impressive in their own way).
• Bus Tour: First, we stopped at a pottery shop to make our own Shisa (traditional guardian lions), then we had a delicious Okinawa lunch, went to the impressive Shuri Castle (now undergoing reconstruction after burning down in 2019), and took the scenic coastal route back to the marina.
• Dinner party with local sailors. The Yonabaru mayor gave all Rally participants special Yonabaru JYR badges.

Iki Island, Nagasaki

• Potluck dinner, with lots of barley shochu (distilled liquor, originally from Iki) consumed.
• Bus Tour: We went to a fish market to make our own sashimi (raw fish) rice dishes for lunch, followed by a tour of a shochu distillery (with lots of tasting!), a leisurely soak in a luxurious seaside onsen (hot spring bath), a visit to Iki’s famous monkey rock, and a long stop at Iki’s excellent museum.
• Over 50 local children visited the Rally boats. They were fascinated to learn about the extensive offshore cruising histories of the participants and were impressed by how spacious and well-equipped the boats were – a few future “dreamers” were born!

Otaru, Hokkaido

• Rally participants took a crash course on how to make soba (buckwheat noodles), followed by a delicious soba and tempura lunch. It was featured in the local newspaper (PDF)!
• Bus tour: The first stop was to a glass-blowing shop, where each person made their our own cup, and then to a seaside restaurant for a delicious seafood lunch and to a winery for a great tour and tasting.
• Dinner with local sailors, with each boat getting special presents from the mayor.

After provisioning and boat preparations, the participants headed to Wakkanai, at Hokkaido’s northern tip, although with a few boats stopping at some of the lovely islands along the way. At Wakkanai, they completed their clear-out procedures and, when the weather window opened, departed for Alaska.

At the end of the Rally, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. Overall, they gave the Rally high marks, but it was interesting to see the diversity of answers and perspectives. Asked to name the highlights, the bus tours were #1 for some participants but were rated poorly by others. Ranking the three destinations, Okinawa, Iki, and Otaru were all ranked #1 by some and #3 by others. In general, though, there was a very high degree of satisfaction with all aspects of the Rally’s organization, but we received many useful suggestions for improving the Rally and for supporting cruising clients generally.

Rally Schedule for 2026

We really enjoyed organizing the Japan Yacht Rally 2025, especially when we saw how much the participants enjoyed the Japan experience. Unfortunately, however, we have made the difficult decision not to run the Japan Yacht Rally in 2026. Although the Rally was never intended to be profitable (just break-even would be fine), it is actually a major money loser for us. And it would be impossible to raise the participation fee to cover all the costs, and to significantly cut back on the Rally activities would result in a far lower level of participant satisfaction.

However, depending on the Alaska-bound cruising clients who come in 2026, we might organize an informal “Rally Lite” to promote interaction among them and to remotely organize dinners and sightseeing activities. Still pondering.

We will, though, be organizing a Setouchi Yacht Rally in 2026. We couldn’t make it happen in 2025 because of a lack of participants (Konpira Consulting agreed to take over operation of the SYR quite late, so we didn’t have enough time for marketing), but we are confident that it will run in 2026. It will be held in May, with four stops over four weeks.

For more information, see the Setouchi Yacht Rally page.

See you in 2026!

A record number of foreign cruisers came to Japan in 2025. Many, including the JYR participants, left for Alaska or other destinations, but many more are still cruising Japan and will leave their boats in Japan over the winter. We look forward to many more cruisers coming to Japan in 2026 and beyond.