Normally I save the “thank you’s” for the last paragraph but with so much support for yesterday’s race I thought the recognition should be stated first. So thanks to the Dwyer Family; Alyce,Tim,Finn, and Gaelyn for hosting the race. They provided the post race gathering in their home, the chase boat driven by Finn, and the race accomodations of the Connanicut Yacht Club. It is a lot of work hosting a race. The raffles held after the race were generously supported by Ocean Paddle Sport East who donated a Fenn Paddle won by Tim, and Mocke PFD. Epic who has supported the race for many years, also donated a paddle won by Mary Beth, and (2) $100.00 gift certificates. I happened to draw the winning number for Adventurious Joe’s Coffee donated by Eric McNett. My wife, Betsy with her steady companion Daisy took most of the pictures for today’s race. See the link below for 146 pictures of the race.
And of course thanks to 21 determined paddlers for coming. Many showed up sleep deprived like Mark and Andrius operating on four hours sleep. No worries, the Double Beaver race will wake you up like a .3 milligrams of epinephrine injected into the anterolateral aspect of your thigh.
Betsy and Alyce
The Double Beaver Course(DBC) requires a high level of attention. Mary Beth looking pensive before the race, said “I should be fine, I brought my V8”. The DBC is for experienced paddlers only, but most opted to paddle more stable skis including myself(Ev0 2). With the DBC as part of my home training grounds, I found the conditions moderate with virtually no swell action, only wind driven waves on the beam or quarter beam overlayed on the always undulating water of the course. Think of a firm water bed for those of us old enough to remember, with 8-10 mph winds. Upon a few requests including my own, Tim shortened the course by two miles opting to turn on the Beavertail can vice Whale Rock. The weather was unsettled with the potential for fog and thunderstorms. So the course was a perfect distance of 10 miles.
Mark,Tim, Kirk, Andrius(right) pre race
Pre Race at the Yacht Club
We are off!
Just after finish!
Once we rounded Bull Point headed to Beavertail, there were two lines, one inside and one outside. With the incoming tide, Tim, Mike McDonough and myself took this line. Borys, Andrius and Chris took a very wide line. At mile 3.5 Mike got a boat length ahead of Tim and I, but that was short lived as I crept back into the lead of our pack. Beata was on our line as we drew parallel with Short Point, and we merged with her a boat length ahead. We angled over toward Chris who had stopped to nurse a nagging condition and then turned back. Before this, Chris was having one of his best races hot on the trail of Andrius and ahead of our pack by 30 seconds. With Chris okay, Beata and I proceeded to the turn buoy with Tim and Mike not too far behind. Once we rounded the can, the wind was now against us with a favorable tide. I opted for an outside line contrary to Eric’s and Andrius’s line who were very close to shore. With Beata riding my stern wash, we were on great line. Beata is the master at riding wash. Even in these conditions she was just no more than foot behind me. At one point, I tapped brace a few times deciding if I wanted to grab a gel now or wait. She asked if I was okay and I explained what I was doing. There is one very short section of the course for 200 yards where the water smoothes out before getting rough again. I got down about half my gel as Beata got a length ahead. Shortly afterwards, I reclaimed the lead with Beata giving me two faint taps of her bow to remind me, “keep up the pace”, I am here. Just as I was thinking we were alone, Jim Hoffman was to my right by 20 yards, so I increased my tempo trying to fend off Jim. I knew once we got past House on the Rocks with1.5 miles to go, Beata would then make her move. She did with Jim on her wash and both dropped me. As they passed, I yelled “stay right” for better water. They ignored me fortunately. I angled right to stay with the tide, now 50 yards to their right. Beata eventually dropped Jim but I had now made up the ground I lost running parallel with Jim to the finish. I knew it was going to be close, and Jim finished ahead of me by 8 seconds with Beata finishing 29 seconds ahead of me. So Beata took 4th, Jim 5th, and me 6th. Bory looking fresh at the finish, was 6 minutes ahead of 2nd place finisher Eric with Andrius finishing less than a minute behind for 3rd place.
Beata
Big Jim (OpsEast) finishing. I am in background!
Ken Cooper paddling hard to the finish!
Gary Shaw, the 2008 Double Beaver Winner, was our visiting paddler in town again as the Engineer of one of the mega sailing yachts. Gary once an Elite/A grade paddler from Cape Town, South Africa who lives and trains on the famous Millers Run course, admittedly said his training was way off. I asked him how most of us would grade out in classification used in other parts of the world. He said B to B+. Not bad for a bunch of New England 50 year olds. While I know we could not have paddled in those huge conditions of Millers Run, I told him jokingly, you can now tell your friends back home those New Englanders are no slouches if the conditions are flat to moderate. We may not be able to bring our “A” game but we can certainly bring our best “B” game!
Gary(to right of pole) in 2009 at Cape Town Discovery Race
Wesley and Gary Shaw
So next race is the Rose Island Race, August 9th, then the US Surfski Champs for a small group of New Englanders including Borys, Beata, Greg(hope he is recovered enough), Tim, Craig, and Jim. Hope I did not miss anyone. Wishing those guys an enjoyable race and I hope to get some good stories as they mix it up with some of the Elite paddlers in US and in the World.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.