2009 New England Surfski Championships – by Eric McNett

Many thanks to all the paddlers, rowers, US, Coast Guard, City of Portland, Maine, USCA and volunteers who made this day so pleasant even though the weather wasn`t.

Special thanks to timer, Diane Fournier of the Mt. Ararat High School Track and Cross Country teams. Dr. Dwight Blease for pitching in wherever needed and to Owen Blease the “official” race photographer.

It`s been so stormy and wet here in New England this Summer so far, it seemed to me that the weather HAD to clear by the time race day arrived. Well the rains came and they came on and on as the days passed. And, sure enough, on race day it was raining, cool, foggy with a strong possibility of thunder storms.

Even though the forecast didn`t look good, the turnout was a record for this third running of this event.

With wind direction (east) and ocean conditions being what they were, the decision was made to get out the Nav chart and go to plan B for a race route up to Basin Point in South Harpswell. Plan “B” was an inside route to the northeast traveling up the coast on the east side of Peaks, Long and Chebeague Islands. As the weather continued to worsen, plan “B” was scrapped in favor of plan “C”.

Plan “C” was a 4 Lap circuit race around two nav buoys in Portland Harbour, each lap being roughly 2 miles long.

At the sound of the starters horn, all classes stepped on the gas together heading into the tidal current to the first turn buoy. Before the first turn there were already gaps beginning to form in the field. First ski around was Cory Lancaster paddling steady and looking very strong and well within himself. Next was me, fairly close still but not on Cory’s wake, Mike Tracey, Rod McLain on an OC1, Alex McLain, Jay Appelton and Cindy McNett. Colleen Moore on an OC1 .

As each lap passed, the wind picked up. The water became choppy and sloppier each lap, lots of tidal current as well. As the race passed in front of the start / finish area I noticed Cory and Rich Klajnscek on a sliding seat single missing out on a pretty nice back eddy close to shore. I took a right into the eddy, stepped on the gas and began to slowly lessen the distance between myself and Cory. 3 laps worth of the race went by in this way . On the 4th and final lap the wind had picked up significantly and Cory’s rough water paddling skills began to become more apparent as he rapidly pulled ahead.

A nice duel was taking place among the women with Alex McLain leading Cindy McNett through the first couple of laps . The gap between these two was not too great at first but like that which was happening in the men’s field, Alexs` rough water abilities were too much for Cindy this time.

Next years race will be a complete redo of just about every aspect, we will have a new race course, venue and format. Start and finish area next year will be in the same spot to make logistics easier. A beautiful route among the islands of Casco Bay, easy to navigate will be the venue.

Many thanks to all of you for coming, see you next year!

~ Eric