2025 Bay State Games 6 mile Paddle Race

I was not sure what to expect for the Bay State Games 6 miler, except it was only an hour ride from my house, a triangle course of roughly six miles and hosted by Matt Drayer, surfski paddler of this site and more. For this article I did a quick query of Wollaston Beach and the island in Quincy Bay. These island are loaded with interesting history dating back to the 1600’s.

Here’s a more detailed look:
Location:
It’s situated along Quincy Shore Drive in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts.
Size and Features:
Wollaston Beach is the largest public beach in Boston Harbor, offering two miles of harborfront. It features dog-friendly boardwalks, a seawall for exploration, and concession stands.
Parking:
There are several free parking lots along Quincy Shore Drive, including locations east of Rice Road, east of Fenno Road, and at Caddy Memorial Park, as well as along the north side between Bayfield Road and Rice Road according to The Patriot Ledger.
Water Quality:
The beach has regular water quality testing, and it closes when necessary to ensure swimming safety, according to Wag!.
Restrooms:
Basic, clean restroom facilities are available during the season, run by the DCR according to Yelp.
Dog-Friendly:
Wollaston Beach is known for being dog-friendly, with boardwalks and ample space for dogs to enjoy the beach.

As I pulled up I noticed long, wide beach that looks out into Quincy Harbor with many islands in the distance.

One of those tiny islands is Hangman Island of which we would be rounding for the 1st leg of the course.Hangman Island, also known as Hayman’s Island, is an island in the Quincy Bay area of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is a barren outcrop of bedrock, with a permanent size of half an acre rising to only three feet above sea level, plus an intertidal zone of a further 5 acres (20,000 m²). Access is by private boat only.

The 2nd leg we would be turning around the 3rd bridge piling of the Long Island causeway(no longer in use) and then back to the start.

Photo by Arnold Reinhold

The start had us standing in 2 ft of water mounting our skis to begin the race. Looking out onto Quincy Bay, it looked very flat as you can see from my finish in the video. However, once we got about a mile off shore, we encountered quartering seas maintaining a line to Hangman Island. For the first mile, I was riding the wash of Chris Sousa, fresh of his Blackburn Challenge. I wanted take a slightly different line so I followed Adam Nolde for a quarter mile. Rounding Hangman Island in the lee allowed me to catch my breath momentarily before sizing up the next leg to the Long Island 3rd bridge abutment. Once out of the lee, conditions picked up building to 3-4ft seas on the beam or the quarter depending on you line. I chose the line to the 2nd bridge abutment thinking wrongly it was the 3rd since the 1st abutment must be obscured by the island itself. As I paddled further, I could see John Mathieu turning on the 3rd abutment. I adjusted my line from sloppy beam/quarting 3-4 ft seas to a sloppy downwind to the turn. I thought, wow, this feels like Ride the Bull action or the last few miles before the Dog Bar of the Blackburn. My second thought: glad I brought my stable S18X with the 7 inch rudder. Once I made the turn, I felt relieved to be paddling into a head wind. I focused on the couple of OC’s who started 5 minutes before us, and over took 2 of them on this last 2 mile leg. The 3rd OC1, I paddled the last half mile with less then a boat length ahead. The beach finish of 30 yards is tough on old guys transitioning from boat to running. My legs felt like jelly and I looked so bad, I edited out this part of the video.

Bernie Romanowski took first place easily over Greg Lesher and Jim Rothwell placed 3rd. Bernie(tandem) and Greg(single) had excellent times in this years Blackburn. Ian Black informally raced today by giving everyone a 5 minute head start and still finished 5 minutes ahead of everyone. I spoke to Ian, the winner of this years Blackburn about his Blackburn race. He and Ed Joy were in close proximity most of the race either drafting or Ian maintaining a lead. Once they made it to the dog bar Ed closed the gap and began to put pressure on Ian who despite admitting some fatigue, open up the gap with a time of 2:35:42 followed by Ed with a time of 2:37:33. This years Blackburn had perfect conditions with a massive outgoing tide and flat conditions making it more enjoyable event than usual.

I highly recommend this the Bay State race for next year! Matt Drayer, Race Director and his volunteers did a outstanding job of organizing the race. I had a blast! Next Race is the USCA Nationals next week, then August 23, my race, the Sakonnet River Race. You can register for it on Paddle Guru. 5 miles of potential downwind on the 9 mile course and $320 of Run Newport Gift card raffles.