If you're looking for the Jamestown Double Beaver race report, you can find it here.
The forecast for the evening as of early afternoon was for rain with intermittent thunderstorms, leading Ed to consider canceling the race. Fortunately, he decided we should give it a try. It turned out to be a glorious evening with clear skies and little wind. Salem Sound was about as glassy as I'd ever seen it. Ed decreed that we'd run double-header course #4.
I've had trouble with this course. We've run it twice this year (once as a non-stop course) and both times Francisco has destroyed me, coming in well over a minute ahead. High tide was a couple of hours before race time, so we'd had have the ebb helping us on the way to Black Rocks and coming back from the red nun. On the other spans, we'd be on our own.
Nobody will be amazed to hear that Francisco and Matt got off the line first. However, I also had a good start and caught them before Lynch Park point. With me on the inside and Francisco on the outside, Matt found himself squeezed out as we took the turn. Uncharacteristically, I found myself with the lead less than two minutes into the race. I pulled away from shore to take advantage of the tide and gave it all I could, not knowing whether Francisco was hanging on or not.
In the heat of the moment, I skirted Black Rocks a little more closely than I should have, watching submerged rocks pass inches below my hull. After completing the turn, I got a gander at the rest of the field. I had expected to see Francisco close behind, but was surprised to see a pack of four paddlers (Francisco, Matt, Kirk, and Mike) hanging tightly together a fair ways back. I appeared to have a solid lead, but wanted to nail down a big as an advantage as possible going into the second leg, so I maintained a slobber-flying level of effort. By staying closer to shore, I was able to minimize the impacts of the ebbing tide while finding a few tiny swells to boost me along.
The finish order of the first leg was me, Francisco, Matt, Kirk, Mike, Ken, Bruce, Bill, and Mary Beth. I had a 1:49 advantage over Francisco, which I thought was probably enough to cement the win for the night. Francisco must have felt the same way, because he and Kirk switched boats for the second leg.
We all adopted the same navigational strategy on this leg - keep to the shallower waters inside when heading to the red nun, then stay outside in the channel on the way back. Matt and Francisco jumped out to the lead. My start wasn't great, so it took me a few minutes to catch up. After sparring with Francisco for a while (a weird experience with him in a V12), I took the lead about halfway to the turn-around. I was again surprised by how little of an effect the outgoing tide was having on my speed and wondered if perhaps I had overestimated the tidal currents.
After rounding the red nun, it became immediately obvious that the tide was in fact ripping along in the channel. My GPS was showing numbers in the high 8's right after the turn. So this is what it must be like to be Dorian, I thought. My speed dropped a little as the channel widened, but I was able to stay well over 8 mph for most of the return to the beach. With such favorable conditions, I thought I had a reasonable shot at the course record, so I kept pushing and panting through the finish. The effort paid off.
Francisco and Matt had a good battle for second place, with Francisco ending up only a second ahead overall. Mike overcame his deficit in the first leg to edge out Kirk, with both finishing less than a minute behind Matt. Here are the full results:
I'm up 3 points on Francisco, hoping to hang on in the final 2 races of the season.
The forecast for the evening as of early afternoon was for rain with intermittent thunderstorms, leading Ed to consider canceling the race. Fortunately, he decided we should give it a try. It turned out to be a glorious evening with clear skies and little wind. Salem Sound was about as glassy as I'd ever seen it. Ed decreed that we'd run double-header course #4.
I've had trouble with this course. We've run it twice this year (once as a non-stop course) and both times Francisco has destroyed me, coming in well over a minute ahead. High tide was a couple of hours before race time, so we'd had have the ebb helping us on the way to Black Rocks and coming back from the red nun. On the other spans, we'd be on our own.
Nobody will be amazed to hear that Francisco and Matt got off the line first. However, I also had a good start and caught them before Lynch Park point. With me on the inside and Francisco on the outside, Matt found himself squeezed out as we took the turn. Uncharacteristically, I found myself with the lead less than two minutes into the race. I pulled away from shore to take advantage of the tide and gave it all I could, not knowing whether Francisco was hanging on or not.
In the heat of the moment, I skirted Black Rocks a little more closely than I should have, watching submerged rocks pass inches below my hull. After completing the turn, I got a gander at the rest of the field. I had expected to see Francisco close behind, but was surprised to see a pack of four paddlers (Francisco, Matt, Kirk, and Mike) hanging tightly together a fair ways back. I appeared to have a solid lead, but wanted to nail down a big as an advantage as possible going into the second leg, so I maintained a slobber-flying level of effort. By staying closer to shore, I was able to minimize the impacts of the ebbing tide while finding a few tiny swells to boost me along.
The finish order of the first leg was me, Francisco, Matt, Kirk, Mike, Ken, Bruce, Bill, and Mary Beth. I had a 1:49 advantage over Francisco, which I thought was probably enough to cement the win for the night. Francisco must have felt the same way, because he and Kirk switched boats for the second leg.
We all adopted the same navigational strategy on this leg - keep to the shallower waters inside when heading to the red nun, then stay outside in the channel on the way back. Matt and Francisco jumped out to the lead. My start wasn't great, so it took me a few minutes to catch up. After sparring with Francisco for a while (a weird experience with him in a V12), I took the lead about halfway to the turn-around. I was again surprised by how little of an effect the outgoing tide was having on my speed and wondered if perhaps I had overestimated the tidal currents.
After rounding the red nun, it became immediately obvious that the tide was in fact ripping along in the channel. My GPS was showing numbers in the high 8's right after the turn. So this is what it must be like to be Dorian, I thought. My speed dropped a little as the channel widened, but I was able to stay well over 8 mph for most of the return to the beach. With such favorable conditions, I thought I had a reasonable shot at the course record, so I kept pushing and panting through the finish. The effort paid off.
Francisco and Matt had a good battle for second place, with Francisco ending up only a second ahead overall. Mike overcame his deficit in the first leg to edge out Kirk, with both finishing less than a minute behind Matt. Here are the full results:
| Greg Lesher | Epic V10 (New) | 0:38:02 | 12 |
| Francisco Urena | Stellar SE | 0:41:01 | 11 |
| Matt Drayer | Epic V8 | 0:41:02 | 10 |
| Mike McDonough | Huki S1-X | 0:41:26 | 9 |
| Kirk Olsen | Epic V12 | 0:41:46 | 8 |
| Ken Cooper | Epic V10 Sport (New) | 0:43:13 | 7 |
| Bruce Deltorchio | Think Eze | 0:44:20 | 6 |
| Bill Kuklinski | Epic V10 Sport (New) | 0:46:21 | 5 |
| Mary Beth Gangloff | Huki S1-R | 0:52:29 | 12 |
I'm up 3 points on Francisco, hoping to hang on in the final 2 races of the season.
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