[Paddlewise] Run of the Charles race report

Okay, it's been way to quiet lately.

Yesterday was the 22nd annual run of the charles canoe race.  This race
is held the last sunday in april in Boston.
It's an assortment of races all sharing the same finish line.

There's a 26 mile professional canoe race, which draws the likes of Serge
Corbin from Canada.
A 24 mile relay with 5 legs - so this works to about 100 boats each with
10 participants per team - or 1000 participants for this race
A 19 mile long race for kayaks and non-profesional canoe racers
A 9 mile race
A 6 mile race.

All but the 6 mile race are primarily downstream races and have a number
of portages including an honest half mile carry down the sidewalk
(complete with parking meters) in Newton Lower Falls.

There's some shallow water for the final 9 miles of all of the point to
point races.  A friend damaged his boat last year, by hitting a rock
which drove his rudder through the hull.  His boat had an under hull not
a stern mounted rudder.  Because of the shallow water I opted for doing
the "lazy man's" 6 mile race.
I can't comment on the other races as I only did 6. 

There were several additional classes this year.  First off were the
outrigger canoes, second to start were the Olympic K1 and "unlimited" K1.
 I did the race in an "unlimited" K1 so I'm not sure how many boats were
in the other classes.  There looked to be between 20 and 30 boats in the
sprint/unlimited wave.
The Washington DC sprint club sent up a team.  It was great to see them
race.  Here in New England we see the occaisional sprint boat, but that's
only because one of the manufacturers is here, it's almost unheard of to
see one in use.  The local manufacturer, Van Dusen, had one of the boats
slated to go to the olympics on display. 

As expected off the start 3 sprint paddlers took off.  It was very nice
to watch them working together.  They set up in a V formation and were
regularly rotating who was leading the V.  By paddling in a V formation
one paddler led and the other two got to wake ride.  I managed to stay
ahead of 2 sisters paddling sprint K1's for a while but they passed me
and I got a nice wake ride for a while, the 2 sprint boats were also
alternating who was leading with the second boat riding the side wakes. 
I found out later that 2 other boats were behind me, making for nice long
4 boat chain.  Alas, a sprint coach for Washington team was on one of the
Charles river bridges and he told the 2 sisters to sprint, and they did
dropping me handily.  

I had one or two position changes with the guy drafting me when the
sprint boats pulled ahead and ended up about 20 seconds ahead of him at
the finish.  I ended up a full 5 minutes behind the first trio of sprint
boats.  The winner managed to do 6.375 miles in about 50:18 (with a good
bit of shallow water and lots of other race traffic, the race distance is
from a gps on one of the other competitors boats.

Now I'm tempted, where to find a used sprint boat and how to sneak it
into the collection ;-)

It sure was nice watching paddlers who were coached and knew what they
were doing, versus those of us who are self taught slappers :-}

Kirk
-- 
  Kirk Olsen
  kork4_at_cluemail.com
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