Sakonnet River Race: Great Turnout, Glorious Conditions, Great Fun!

Thanks to everyone for coming and to my wife Betsy with registration, pics, and timing. Thanks to Chris and Razz for taking pics. We had 24 paddlers today coming from all over the Northeast, making it an excellent turnout for the 5th Sakonnet River Race. Conditions were as good as they get: upwind grind, and great white cap downwind((12-15 mph, gusting to 25) for 6 miles to reward all the work getting to the turn buoy. If you were fast enough like the front pack paddlers you could link the waves. I was linking some but wished I could have linked more to increase my overall time.

Toughest leg from start to Sandy Point, 2 miles. Simon, Timmy, Tim H.

Headed to Black Point

Borys Markin on a Stellar Day!

We had some significant performances by many paddlers. Borys Markin cruised to first place by over nine minutes in a time of 1:41:15 for the 12.5 mile course. Greg had another impressive performance coming in second breaking away from the pack of Jan,Flavio, and Andrius at mile 4. Jan and Flavio were neck and neck the whole race, only a minute or so behind Greg. Andrius, a noted K1 Northeast paddler, made his ocean debut today, even after driving 26 hours on a motorcycle the day before. He borrowed one of my SES’s and off to the races he went. The most improved performance goes to Kam who is light years ahead of where he was at last years race. Persistence pays off.

Greg taking it home!

Jan and Flavio at Finish

Andrius on K1, ski, or motorcycle, matters not.

Francisco

Wesley

Link to my GPS Track

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/322969092

Beata and Joe

Persistence paid off for Mary Beth also. She put in a superb effort despite paddling a very heavy ski upwind and up current on the first leg. Joe Shaw coming off the 70 mile General Clinton last Saturday is like the energizer bunny. Joe can just go and go with little recovery time needed. Beata and Joe paddled together most of the race closing the gap on me in the last few miles. Beata in only her second season of ski paddling continues to be very consistent whether on flat water or the ocean. Francisco who completed Molokai two weeks ago opened the gap on me in the last mile. Tim H paddling my 18S had a nice race and was looking smooth and relaxed in his effort. Simon put in an awesome effort and loved every minute it, well most of it, a he told me after the race. Jim and Steve paddling their double get the good Samaritan award for stopping to help out Mark and Sean. Bob, Mr. Versatility, can paddle a V8 or V12 with equal aplomb and set up a tent with the best of them. Always great to see Mike McDonough one the Beverly Boys which reminds me we miss seeing Mike Tracy. Where is Mike? My friend Brian Sharp always ready for an adventure having traveled the globe racing the fastest sailboats in the world had a great time as well.

Greg still leads the SurfskiRacing.com Series. With Borys paddling, the places for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, places will be extremely competitive as the season moves forward.