70s (or earlier) SF novel, colonist spaceships crash-land on Venus because of an electrical field, protagonist searches for his astronaut father

I thought the title was "Escape (On / To) Venus" (not the Burroughs novel) – written for children or young adults.

The story is about a spaceship of colonists heading to Venus from Earth – one young passenger is the son of a former astronaut who travelled to Venus and disappeared years ago. The son realizes that Venus is protected by an electrical field (?) that causes ships to crash-land.

Once on Venus, he searches for his father and eventually finds his father’s ship – can’t remember if he finds his father or much else about it. I do remember that Venus had primitive life – hostile primates of some sort that threw rocks or had slingshots(?).

I seem to remember that the ship left Earth from Alaska.