2012 Narrow River Race-New Faces

This race always is a small affair so I was pleasantly surprised that most of the guys came quite a distance to paddle the 10 mile course. Matt in his sea kayak came down from Marblehead. I give Matt a lot of credit, he made the trip, paddled hard for almost two hours and got him money’s worth for a workout. He will race the ROTC in a few weeks. Dave Furniss from Queens took the opportunity to visit friends in Newport this weekend and get a paddle in. For those of you who don’t know Dave, he paddled the Current Design Freedom in last year’s Blackburn and broke the three hour mark. This is no small feat in any boat and especially in the Fast Sea Kayak division. To my knowledge this is a record for the Blackburn Course in this class of fast single kayaks. Dave will be paddling a surfski for the ocean races this year so we look forward to hearing more from Dave. Mark and Steve also drive up from Connecticut which is a hike as well. Lastly Dave Grainger also made the trip up and placed 4th. So a special thanks goes to these guys. There are a lot of paddlers in the Boston area that I wish would come down for the race but I think the distance this early in the season prevents these guys from making the trip.

We had a sunny 50 degree day with not much wind. Francisco took the early lead for almost a mile before I over took him. At the 3 mile turn, I had about a 2 minute lead on the group with Tim and Francisco neck and neck. From this point on, I looked back trying to see if they were gaining on me. It was not until the final turn at mile 7.5 that I realized that Tim had made up some ground on me. I pushed it hard for the next 2 miles and finished about 30 seconds ahead.

I heard that Dave Grainger and Steve were close to each other until the final mile or so when Dave in his Mohican surged ahead. Razz and Dave Furniss were dueling it out over the whole course. Razz’s vast paddling experience paid dividends since he let Dave pull almost the entire race until Razz pushed by him in the final minutes of the race. Mark operating on about 4 hrs sleep from the previous wedding outing the night before, persevered despite not feeling well most the race. So thanks to everyone for joining us.The ROTC is in a few weeks and we all are better prepared having done the NARROW RACE!!!

RESULTS

1. Wesley Echols, 1:27:57, Thunderbolt X

2. Tim Dywer, 1:28: 35, V12

3. Francisco Urena,1:30:30, Stellar SE Excel

4. Dave Grainger, 1:31:15, Mohican

5. Steve Delgadio, 1:32:14, Mako Elite

6. Razz Bregenhoj, 1:35:54, Nelo Razor

7. Dave Furniss, 1:36:25, Current Design Freedom

8. Mark Ceconi, 1:38:01, S1R

9. Matt Drayer, 1:55:00, Shearwater 17ft Sea Kayak