1st race of the 2008 Surfski BC racing season
Posted by bckcrainbow on March 8, 2008
January 26th saw racers take to the Jericho waterfront to take part in the 1st race of the 2008 Surfski BC racing season. Once again thanks to CORA and Jericho Outrigger Canoe Club for including surfskis in their outrigger canoe focused events.
A total of 32 boats took to the water, 7 of which were surfskis.
The course began at the Jericho pier with the racers heading east to round the red and green False Creek entrance channel markers then heading west past the pier to round the first dolphin then finishing back at the pier.
From the start the race was lead out by 2 double surfskis, Ben/John in their Mark 2 and myself/Katja in a Mako XT. Shortly after the start I found the Mark 2’s side wash and we tried to settle in for the ride. After navigating the sailboat race that crossed our race course…fortunately without incident…we then proceed to stay together while rounding the red/green markers and all the way back to the first dolphin. It was here that the race was won/lost. There was a fast outgoing tide that was pushing the boats out to the dolphin, as well a light wind was building and could be felt out by the dolphin. On rounding the dolphin we lost the Mark 2’s side wash and moved to the stern position. Unfortunately both I and Katja could no longer hold the pace and our technique was going ‘all to crap’ as we watched the gap slowly increasing. At this point we decided to put it in cruise…clearly we didn’t have what we needed to match Ben and John on this day. Well done boys!
Shane Martin was the fastest of the solo skis followed by Mike Parks, Chris Dobrovolny, Steve Palmier and Gary Cassius.
Full results are available on the CORA website.
The next local racing opportunity is February 10 at False Creek, www.fcrcc.com.
