Race Tales
We raced the Wye Island race (12.5 mile tidal circumnavigation of an island in the bay) for 10 years or so. We didn’t expect to win, and we usually raced it in odd boats.
We actually placed first several times, but only because we were in some class that had only one or two entries.
We raced a Clipper Mariner several times as an 8 person canoe:
http://www.clippercanoes.com/mariner/
That was usually a first place since we were the only 8-person canoe entered, and certainly the only 8-person canoe paddled by a mix of men, women, children and the elderly*.
*I had mis-stated the age of one of our female paddlers the first year and heard about it from her. The next race I added 10 years to her age, and added another 10 each subsequent year until she was racing in her 70’s.
My son and I won in a 1971 Old Town Sockeye because the only two other tandem kayaks capsized in a boat wake. My niece and her roommate won in the Sockeye as the only female tandem kayak team.
The last time we “raced” Wye was the best. Four of us ran the race backwards, which caused some consternation at the starting line. We paddled a few miles around the island to a nice sandy beach and set up.
What we set up was a table with food, a couple of coolers with cold beer and three signs, Burma Shave style. The signs read “FREE” “RACE” and “BEER”.
That race is open to any type of human powered craft and the first boat to round the corner was an 8-man shell of college boys. They had seen “FREE” and “RACE” with no problem, but when they saw “BEER” a couple of them mistimed their next stroke and there was a clattering or oars, some vivid language from the cox and debate about continuing.
Since they were winning they stroked on, but several boats did stop, including a gentleman in a solo canoe. He lingered with us until every other racer had passed and helped us break down the beer stand and we paddled back to the launch together.
This race attracts a large crowd, usually something like 500 or 600 cars parks in a field. By the time we got back the only vehicles remaining were ours, his and one race official’s car.
The race official had stayed around, not to scold us, but to give our new friend his “First Place Master 50’s Solo Canoe award. He had been the only entry in his class.
BTW – We were already famous, or infamous, in that race and photos of the war Canoe and other odd-duck boats made the race program for several years. We didn’t race Wye the following year but I heard that a photo of the FREE RACE BEER signs made the program.