Our 3rd annual Veterans Regatta was absolutely amazing! We had 26 veteran sailors on 9 boats, supported by 20+ volunteers, sailing in Sandpoint, Idaho, last week. The weather was perfect with light winds in the morning, followed by a fresh breeze in the afternoon. This day is consistently one of the highlights of our sailing season.
From the Vets:
“I really appreciated the regatta yesterday. It was an amazing time! It's great what you and your crew do. I would love to get more involved!”
“Task and purpose without the trauma!”
“YARR!!!”
Huge thank you to our partners:
🔹 Sandpoint Sailing Association
🔹 Spokane Veterans Forum
🔹 Connie’s Cafe
🔹 Jarend McFarland Real Estate
🔹 Pyramid Printing
🔹 Artisan Portrait
🔹 Northwest Land & Lifestyle Property
🔹 Charlie Miller Real Estate
🔹 Hagadone Marine Group
🔹 Chris Chambers Real Estate
🔹 Sandpoint Therapists
🔹 Zapotocky Family
🔹 BOB
Dogsmile Adventures
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Therapeutic sailing for everyone! We provide opportunities for healing and potential through sailing.
07/28/2026
Save the date: Sailapalooza is back!
Evening of Saturday, Sept. 19, at Matchwood Brewing Company in Sandpoint.
Live music, cold drinks, and good people.
Free and family-friendly.
Come celebrate an incredible year on the water with us.
The Dogsmile race team has been putting in the work this summer. ⛵
Out on the water week after week with the Sandpoint Sailing Association, veterans and young adults learning the ropes, reading the wind, and supporting each other every time out.
Proud moment for us at Dogsmile: Zola at the helm of Little Wing. She came up through our youth program, and she's now our first-ever homegrown instructor. That's the mission going full circle.
Being back home, the best thing we could do coming off Race to Alaska was get right back to the work that is the reason we were racing in the first place — getting out on the water with veterans, seniors, young adults, and anyone navigating rough waters, each of them stepping off the boat lighter than they got on.
We've learned it twice now: the result was never the point. The effort is. The intention is.
We sail for people whose everyday lives ask more of them than this race ever will — because everyone deserves a place that hands a little back.
Life is hard. Give yourself a little grace, keep pressing on, and if life is feeling like too much, give us a call for some recalibration on the water.
07/10/2026
Some days on the water change everything.
Veterans: Join us for our 3rd Annual Veterans Regatta — Saturday, July 18 at Windbag Marina in Sandpoint. A full day of sailing on Lake Pend Oreille, no experience needed, no registration fee.
Veterans: Register and take the helm. https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-dogsmile-adventures-veterans-regatta
Community: Come cheer our veterans across the finish line. There's a place for everyone here — on the water or on the docks.
Questions? Reach out to Jon Totten: https://dogsmileadventures.org/home
Veterans, this one's for you.
Dogsmile Adventures' 3rd Annual Veterans Regatta is back — Saturday, July 18 at the Windbag Marina in Sandpoint, Idaho. A full day of sailing on Lake Pend Oreille, no experience needed, and no registration fee (thanks to our incredible sponsors!).
Meet in the morning, learn the ropes over the training session, break for lunch from Connie's Cafe, then race in the afternoon and celebrate at the awards. Rides from Coeur d'Alene and Spokane are available.
Because time on the water makes us all feel better.
Register here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-dogsmile-adventures-veterans-regatta
Or reach out to Jon at the number and email found here: https://dogsmileadventures.org/home .
Event details:
0830-0900: Meet at Windbag Marina for morning briefing
0900-1200: Sail training
1200-1300: Lunch, provided by Connie’s Cafe
1300-1600: Racing!
1600-1700: Awards
Thank you to collaborators & supporters: Sandpoint Sailing Association, Spokane Veterans Forum (SVF), Kootenai County Veterans Court, and Connie's Cafe & Lounge.
A race like this doesn't end at a finish line — it ends in many moments. Long ferry rides. Delayed flights and unplanned layovers. A truck in a parking lot. Sails mended by old friends. Hugs from the people watching at home.
We didn't get the ending we aimed for. But we got something that's harder to put on a tracker: proof that this crew, and this community, shows up — for each other, and for the mission that started it all.
Because none of this was ever about the race. It's about therapeutic sailing for everyone — a place on the water that hands a little back, no matter what you're carrying when you step aboard.
To everyone who followed, cheered, gave, and believed: thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Yarr.
~JT ⚓
06/27/2026
While Jon and the crew were grinding their way up the coast toward Alaska, the mission was still very much alive back home.
Our Junior Sailing program kept right on sailing with young sailors out on Lake Pend Oreille, run in collaboration with the Sandpoint Sailing Association and Parks and Recreation. The race may have been 750 miles away, but the work of getting people onto the water never paused.
That's thanks to Cort Nutt (Cort Jester ) and Eric Nelson (Eric J Nelson ), who kept the program running while the crew was offshore. The race got the dispatches and the tracker attention, but this is the proof too: The water changes people, and it doesn't take a finish line to do it.
📸 Nelson
06/26/2026
SV Dogsmile is almost ready to get back to doing what she does best, delivering joy, healing, and growth on the water.
This is what the generosity of this community looks like up close.
The bottom paint has been applied — coat by coat, section by section. It's not glamorous work. But watching this hull get the protection it needs after all this time? It brings relief, satisfaction, hope, and joy at all that is to come.
Every brushstroke is possible because you showed up. Because you understood that this boat isn't just a boat, it is a mission.
We're almost there. Watch for the splash-back-in post coming soon!
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PO Box 2316
Sandpoint, ID
83864