10,000+ Miles in a Jon Boat | Presentation by Robert Youens | Worldwide Classic Boat Show 2026

Robert Youens is a unique adventurer. North America’s premier cruising adventures like the Inside Passage, Northwest Passage, and Great Loop usually inspire large, stout craft choices, but Robert has done all three of those routes solo in an open jon boat! His next goal is to break the Great Loop elapsed time record with a partner. Enjoy this conversation with Robert and Cooper Rooks, one of his biggest fans (and the only fan there to celebrate Robert’s completion of the Inside Passage trip). They discuss big adventures in small boats and the inescapable pull of legendary waterways like the Inside and Northwest Passages and the Great Loop. Cooper is a lifelong sailor, small-boat adventurer, and teacher, now a graduate of and instructor for the Systems Program at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. He has sailed from Seattle, WA to Auckland, NZ and competed in both the Race to Alaska and WA360 adventure races. He also harbors a deep love for small motorboat adventures, with many hundreds of miles spent exploring the Salish Sea on his 13-foot Boston Whaler skiff. Cooper has been an avid follower of Robert’s Jon Boat adventurers from the beginning.