There are many races that take place within the ROTC, the 6 mile, 9 mile, 19 mile, etc. The 9 and the 19 have portages. Most of the guys I paddle with do the 19 mile that has 6 portages with the longest of a half mile. One change that I noted was the increase use of wheels on the portages, all within the rules. So with aging paddlers this is to be expected. The design of the wheels that goes into these is great from the high tech design that Ted Van Dusen has on his Mohican to the lawn mower wheels that Rob has fastened to his Thunderbolt, to the string tied, one day engineering feat that Tim used on his K1. Some guys still do it the old fashion way, the heart pounding activity of carrying you boat. In any event, it is all good as they say, just so you are in the race.
SS Weyers made the trip from Bermuda and by all accounts had a very good race in his rental ski despite being spun out in the eddy. Mark Ceconi and SS were together for some of the 19 mile race. Roger Gocking had a mix emotions for the race. On one hand he was disappointed he did not finish due to a broken rudder line but on the other hand, he picked up his spankin brand new Mohican. I for one am excited to see how fast Roger will be in the flatwater races in his new boat. Chaz and Corrine Ross made the long drive from PA. Chaz had another good 19 mile race. In talking to the locals, most guys had better races this year due to the faster water, wheels, or simply more training.
Chris and I did the 6 mile race along with Mike Parkinson, Fransisco Urena, Bob Capellini, Blake Conant and Katie(OC2) and others. The overall numbers seem down this year. This was the first year the race was on Saturday and not Sunday, so maybe this had an impact. Nevertheless, we lined up at one o’clock, locked and loaded. Chris, learning from last year that the starting time can be unpredictable, was ready. He bolted off the line with me in tow. It did not take him long to put one boat lenght on me. At the one mile mark, he had boat 3 lenghts. I was slowing gaining by the first buoy turn and inching my way closer to him by mile 3.5. Every few miles Chris would turn to get a gauge of where I was. He had a 15 second gap. At this point there were 2 C2’s together in the shallows as I was gaining ground. Then Chris put in a a strategic interval to get by them and left me trying to get over both C2’s wash. I took me what seem like eternity to get over their wash and Chris had doubled his lead to 30 seconds. Sometimes I think there is more strategy in flatwater racing than ocean racing. I was never able to close the gap and we finished 1st(51.19) and 2nd(51:49) for the 6.24 mile course just as we did last year. This year however, we were 2 minutes faster than last year and we both felt much better than last year. Hopefully our fitness level will translate to the Essex River Race in just a few weeks!!! See the link below for more pics.
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