Mike’s report of the Canada Day Tuesday Night Race…
A beautiful evening in Deep Cove… too bad all access to the North Shore was shut down prior to the race. This left a much smaller crowd then usual.
Bob delayed the start to allow those having difficulty in traffic a chance to race. This cost Bob the prestige of winning a TNR (which is sort of like the Olympics) as the two finishers ahead of him were both late arrivals.
The start was blistering fast… with Ben and Eric in their narrow double leading out of the Cove. Cam and I put in a hard effort to ride a swell up to this duo. Approaching Grey Rocks was a tight group with Ty, Bob, Matt, and Rene.
Around Grey Rocks Ty made a move to the front. Unfortunately, the centrifugal force around the Island was too much for Ty and he went shooting off at the wrong angle. We all yelled at him and he came back to us to get in our wash.
The group broke up crossing to Hamber. There was an Ebbing current, and everyone was trying to ferry across on the most efficient line. We were East of the group and took a more direct line I think. Ty stuck with us.
The water was fairly rough, with some decent boat wash kicking around. The XT double is bombproof and we are always looking for rides. Close to Hamber we encountered a nice wake to hop on and ride at an angle. This is how we lost Ty in his tippy Millennium.
Cam reported Ty’s capsize, and remembering safety first, and never leave someone in distress, I said “OK let’s nail it”.
We fought the current to Jug, keeping close to shore. As always those behind are praying for better current on a different line and went further off shore. Our lead expanded in this section.
After jug the current was going our way with swell that was a little too slow.
There was a dismount at the White can. This was only our second time remounting this boat. We decided to enter simultaneously. This actually seemed easier than independently and was almost as fast as a single.
Just as we were taking off Ty was back jumping in. I think he waited for the group for the sprint. We didn’t stick around.
The sprint started a long way out with Ty holding off Bob, and Matt. Ben and Eric were close behind, along with Rene.
Cam was thrilled with his result. It’s great to see so much support from all the paddlers for these kids. Magically, the boys won a draw prize again!
