Race Results: June 16 at Deep Cove
Posted by bckcrainbow on June 21, 2009
Now that was a fun race! This week’s TNR had racers head south out of the Cove to round the marker off Cates Park for a total distance of 8.0 km. There were a few notables for tonight’s race…Gareth was over from Victoria to put Epic’s new V12 surfski through its paces…Bob and Reid were doing the same with Fenn’s new Elite tandem surfski…Ken had spent the weekend testing the Think Uno and was ready to see how he could race it…the Foellmer twins were teaming up in a Sagitta K2 to challenge the surfskis.
Despite their young age of 15, Nic and Seb are really starting to find some good speed this year…so I elected to line up next to them to see if I could ride wash on their K2. The guys got an awesome start and I immediately realized plan B was in order. So I settled into a pack with Chris (Evo), Ken (Uno) and Ty (Legend). At the front Nic/Seb were setting the pace with Gareth settled onto their right slip…shortly behind was Bob/Reid trying a more onshore line to try to make up the deficit. In our pack Chris and Ken had been setting the early pace, as we approached Grey Rocks Ty moved to the front to pick up the pace indicating that we were being caught by the chase pack which included the father/son tandem ski teams of Ben/Eric (S2X) and Mike/Cam (Mako XT). The 4 of us then took turns setting the pace while the others “rested” on wash…this seemed to work out well as we stayed clear of the tandem skis, but Terry (V10L) managed to put in a good effort to bridge up to our pack. There was a light headwind and may have been a small amount of current against us as our speed was below 12 most of the way out to the turn. At the turn the Foellmer twins were still out front with Gareth riding wash…Bob/Reid were about 10 seconds behind. At the finish, the twins put in a hard acceleration at the entrance to the Cove dropping Gareth to finish alone in first place…the post race video clearly showed their picking up the pace with the stroke rate coming up while continuing to apply powerful strokes…well done Nic and Seb! After the Cates Park turn our pack of 5 skis continued to paddle together although fewer of us were able to take turns on the front. The pace was now now hovering in the 12.5 to 13.5 km/h range. By Grey Rocks Ty was dangling just off the back of our pack while Chris was barely hanging onto the pack’s stern wash. A few short sprints were put in to test the strength of our pack…and to put on a show for the video boat that had pulled alongside our group. As we approached the Cove, Terry and Ken chose slightly different lines with Ken a bit more offshore. As we were clearly setting up for a sprint finish I was having to decide which boat’s wash to follow. As the boats separated I moved from Ken’s to Terry’s wash…Terry had been paddling really well as evidenced by his being able to catch our group and then still contributed to the pace setting. It didn’t take long for Ken to realize he was on his own and as such seemed to step on the gas slightly to try to further open the gap. Ken only got about 2 boat lengths ahead before myself and Terry realized what was happening…we immediatelyclosed up on Ken and moved onto his wash…I on his left slip with Terry on my left slip. At the finish, the Bumble Beevo just barely nipped Ken at the line with Terry coming in next followed by Chris then Ty.
The gals race was just as exciting…at the finish there were 5 gals together fighting for line honours with Rebecca (Super Lancer K1) taking 1st a boat length ahead of Kristin (Tornado K1) who just barely outsprinted Katja (Legend) and Carolyn (S1X) with Jodi coming in a boat length or 2 behind…VERY COOL!
I have to admit…downwind paddling is really fun…but when it comes to racing you just cannot beat great pack racing conditions…to me, it is the interaction between racers that makes “racing” fun…whereas often it is the interaction between paddler and ocean that makes “paddling” fun.
NEXT RACES:
June 23 TNR Lesser Kayak Swap
June 25 Big Chop
June 28 Lotus Small Boats Race
June 30 TNR Magnum PI Night
