G'day Craig and Matt, and many thanks for the comprehensive responses. You both mentioned a prerace run. As the start of the Hawkesbury is a fair distance away and the adverse current conditions will occur at the end of the race I'll focus on the lower reaches of the river. Craig those suggestions made a lot of sense. I hadn't thought about paddling faster in adverse currents - it was non-intuitive for me being opposite to my practise in gusts of strong wind, when I just try to hold position. But of course you are right - current is quite different. The GPS will be very valuable and I hadn't thought to check observations while watching the bow, it will certainly make for a more interesting paddle. One side of this particular river can sometimes be shallow and the other side deeper, depending on which way the river bends, while the centre is invariably deep, so I'll stay in the center of the river during ebb. The key question may be whether to cut corners just a little in the flood tide, while staying away from areas that are so shallow they cause drag, or if I have understood Matt correctly to seek a possible counter current on the outer deep side of the river bend. Matt the down river race is invariably run on a night when the currents are favourable at the start of the race, which means that really fast racing classes can stay in sync with the current for long periods. The adverse flood tide tends to be significant for the last few hours of the race, unless one is very slow, so the possibility of counter currents is significant and I have experienced them, more by good luck than judgement, in previous races. BTW thanks for the comment that there were books on downhill river racing - hadn't realised that and will seek them out. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Aug 10 2009 - 05:33:10 PDT
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