Blackburn Challenge 2008

[leong]

Well I’m back from completing the Blackburn Challenge Race this weekend. I bought a new boat (Seda Impulse) for the race, mainly because I wanted a rudder for the race (last year I couldn’t hold course with my rudderless Falcon 18 in heavy chop and cross winds)

As planned I started out near the back and began to slowly catch up with the leaders. The first mile was uneventful. Then there was a sudden cracking noise, heard by paddlers on all sides of me. The Smart Track foot peg assembly cracked open. (more on this later). Now I was without rudder control and, more important, I didn’t have a foot peg on the right side to push on. I considered dropping out but decided to continue anyway … it’s a scenic trip. To compensate, I dug my right knee against the combing and pressed my right toes against the little bit of residual plastic left from the broken-off foot peg.

A little after leaving the Annisquam River the first group of surf ski’s passed by me. I noticed that Ken Cooper’s form was almost flawless (His stroke reminded me of Greg Barton, who was not in the race this year). I tried to copy Ken’s form, but it was impossible with out the foot peg and my injured arm (Oh, did I forget to mention that after training with Les a few weeks ago I woke up the next day with Golf Elbow Tendentious; more on this later).

Somewhere around Folly Point I caught up to some women paddler. She yelled out “Hi Leonâ€, but I didn’t remember ever seeing her before. Then a strange thing happened. She called out “let’s go ashore and have a picnic, this race is much too much workâ€. I slowed down to let her catch up. Naturally I couldn’t believe what I heard. We exchanged some small talk and I told her I would have to pass on the picnic since I didn’t want to place last in the race. So I paddled on as fast as I could with the injured arm and no right foot peg. But she sure was good looking, then again, so are all the other women racers.

Somewhere on Sandy Bay I noticed a bunch of surf skis about 200 yards away, off at 10 O’clock. Then another strange event occurred. The lead ski capsized, but the competitors behind him continued on as if nothing happened. I prayed that someone would turn back and rescue him. But it didn’t happened so I had to do it. The guy was in fantastic shape and I think that he could have easily jumped back on and continued. But he continued flailing around so I held onto his surf ski and after a few minutes he got back on and thanked me. I was thinking that it was almost as if he wanted to slow me down, but that’s ridiculous so I purged it from my thoughts.

As an aside, you are supposed to yell out your boat number to an anchored check-in boat between Straitsmouth Island and the mainland. This didn’t work out this year: the boat was too far to the left (in fact, I’m not even sure if it was the check-in boat).

At around Thatcher Island another strange thing happened. I caught up to Mark Jacobson who was paddling an Epic surf ski. Under normal conditions this would be impossible; Mark is one of the fastest paddlers (won the Blackburn many times) and there is no way I could keep up with him (especially a touring kayak against a racing surf ski). His stroke looked good, however, and he said every thing was fine and that I was just going too fast. I thought it strange but I did slow down for about 10 minutes and paddled at his speed.

Later, as I approached dogbar, I caught up to a guy in a Gulfstream. He took off like a bat out of hell and went between the breaking swells and the jetty. I thought it fool hardy but followed him anyway. He was a great paddler (especially considering he was using a much slower boat), but it seemed like he was trying to kill me, but that’s ridiculous so I purged it from my thoughts.

The final sprint through Gloucester harbor to the finish line (not the greasy pole this year) was uneventful except I couldn’t keep up with any of the sprinters (I think it was due to the missing foot peg and a lot of pain in my left elbow).

All and all I didn’t do that poorly considering the bad arm, the missing footpeg, the unusable rudder, the invitation to picnic, the capsized surf skier and Mark Jacobson’s ploy. My time was almost precisely 3:50, not that far off of my goal of 3:20.

Monday morning I went out for a ride on my road racing bike (I just wanted to forget the kayak race). I wear mountain bike shoes with the Frog clipless clips. My right toes started to hurt and I realized this was the after effect of paddling in a race without a right foot peg. Then the whole race and training procedure went through my mind while peddling along the bike trail.

Suddenly it all became clear to me. While in the beer line I noticed Dr. Les Beale talking and laughing with none other than: 1. The picnic gal, 2. The surf skier, 3. Mark Jacobson, 4. The fast Gulfstream paddler and 5. Some Blackburn race officials.

Obviously, Dr. Les, to get back at me (see previous trip report titled “Counterclockwise Blackburn Circuit, 6/13/08â€) made prior arrangements with individuals 1. – 4. above to set me up. Then you might ask what about 5. The Blackburn officials.

It’s a complicated story. This year the Blackburn Challenge officials posted that this year’s race would follow the Sound Rower’s (SR) boat classification system. For kayaks the system relies on the ratio of the water line length to the water line width, call it the Sound River Number (SRN).

Thus if the SRN is less than 9.25 the boat is in the Sea Kayak class (SK)

If SRN is between 9.25 to 10.99 the boat is in the Fast Sea Kayak class (FSK)

Finally if the SRN is greater than 10.99 the boat is in the High Performance Kayak class (HPK) … these are the racing kayaks and surf skis.

After I heard about the new SR rules I used them to choose a new boat. I wanted an 18 foot boat that had an SRN close to or at the top of the FSK class. The Seda Impulse was such a boat. The newest Epic 18X has an SRN way over 11, so it fits in the HPK class and therefore I wouldn’t consider buying it for the Blackburn Challenge.

Here’s how I think Dr. Les tried to keep me out of the winner circle: Knowing that I wouldn’t buy the Epic 18X (because it’s not in the FSK class), somehow she was able to convince the Blackburn officials to make an exception to the SR rules and place the 18X into the FSK class. The most likely winner of the FSK race would be paddling the Epic 18X. And this actually happened (the 2008 winner was paddling the 18X).

There is one other factor. If you read “Counterclockwise Blackburn Circuit, 6/13/08†you will see that I carried Les’ boat to her car after doing it with my boat. I’m not sure, but I think, she swamped the hatches of her Impex while I was dealing with my boat. Her Impex is supposed to weigh less than 50 pounds. I had an awful tough time lifting her boat (it felt like if weigthed over 100 pounds). And that’s probably the cause of my tendenitis.

There’s one other matter to discuss. After I came back from the registration and check-in for the Blackburn race I noticed Les peering into my cockpit and holding a hammer. She said that she had picked up the hammer on the ground and was just admiring my foot peg system. I can’t believe it, but is it possible that she made some minor adjustments to my foot pegs?

Clearly, Les is a genius … but I forgive her; after all she loaned me a sponge for the race.

[jonsprag1]

you should have gone with the picnic girl---who knows you might have gotten lucky.

[Pintail]

Aaaah, friend Leon G, when (when?) are you going to learn (several things, actually)?

You really have been surrounded by folks paddling British boats for waaay-long enough that you know they <don't break> (except <perhaps> after being subjected to (Beale) hammer blows). Secondly, you ought to know by now (at your age!) <not to trust> a woman, especially one as competitive as LB! Or, for that matter, strangers (female) offering (who knows what?) delights in the middle of a serious race! Ho ho! THAT should have got your radar out of standby mode?

Gullible, gullible -- so very gullible...

(BTW, Thank you for the most entertaining piece I have read for a long time!)

[Lbeale]

Well I’m back from completing the Blackburn Challenge Race this weekend. I bought a new boat (Seda Impulse) for the race, mainly because I wanted a rudder for the race (last year I couldn’t hold course with my rudderless Falcon 18 in heavy chop and cross winds)

As planned I started out near the back and began to slowly catch up with the leaders. The first mile was uneventful. Then there was a sudden cracking noise, heard by paddlers on all sides of me. The Smart Track foot peg assembly cracked open. (more on this later). Now I was without rudder control and, more important, I didn’t have a foot peg on the right side to push on. I considered dropping out but decided to continue anyway … it’s a scenic trip. To compensate, I dug my right knee against the combing and pressed my right toes against the little bit of residual plastic left from the broken-off foot peg.

A little after leaving the Annisquam River the first group of surf ski’s passed by me. I noticed that Ken Cooper’s form was almost flawless (His stroke reminded me of Greg Barton, who was not in the race this year). I tried to copy Ken’s form, but it was impossible with out the foot peg and my injured arm (Oh, did I forget to mention that after training with Les a few weeks ago I woke up the next day with Golf Elbow Tendentious; more on this later).

Somewhere around Folly Point I caught up to some women paddler. She yelled out “Hi Leonâ€, but I didn’t remember ever seeing her before. Then a strange thing happened. She called out “let’s go ashore and have a picnic, this race is much too much workâ€. I slowed down to let her catch up. Naturally I couldn’t believe what I heard. We exchanged some small talk and I told her I would have to pass on the picnic since I didn’t want to place last in the race. So I paddled on as fast as I could with the injured arm and no right foot peg. But she sure was good looking, then again, so are all the other women racers.

Somewhere on Sandy Bay I noticed a bunch of surf skis about 200 yards away, off at 10 O’clock. Then another strange event occurred. The lead ski capsized, but the competitors behind him continued on as if nothing happened. I prayed that someone would turn back and rescue him. But it didn’t happened so I had to do it. The guy was in fantastic shape and I think that he could have easily jumped back on and continued. But he continued flailing around so I held onto his surf ski and after a few minutes he got back on and thanked me. I was thinking that it was almost as if he wanted to slow me down, but that’s ridiculous so I purged it from my thoughts.

As an aside, you are supposed to yell out your boat number to an anchored check-in boat between Straitsmouth Island and the mainland. This didn’t work out this year: the boat was too far to the left (in fact, I’m not even sure if it was the check-in boat).

At around Thatcher Island another strange thing happened. I caught up to Mark Jacobson who was paddling an Epic surf ski. Under normal conditions this would be impossible; Mark is one of the fastest paddlers (won the Blackburn many times) and there is no way I could keep up with him (especially a touring kayak against a racing surf ski). His stroke looked good, however, and he said every thing was fine and that I was just going too fast. I thought it strange but I did slow down for about 10 minutes and paddled at his speed.

Later, as I approached dogbar, I caught up to a guy in a Gulfstream. He took off like a bat out of hell and went between the breaking swells and the jetty. I thought it fool hardy but followed him anyway. He was a great paddler (especially considering he was using a much slower boat), but it seemed like he was trying to kill me, but that’s ridiculous so I purged it from my thoughts.

The final sprint through Gloucester harbor to the finish line (not the greasy pole this year) was uneventful except I couldn’t keep up with any of the sprinters (I think it was due to the missing foot peg and a lot of pain in my left elbow).

All and all I didn’t do that poorly considering the bad arm, the missing footpeg, the unusable rudder, the invitation to picnic, the capsized surf skier and Mark Jacobson’s ploy. My time was almost precisely 3:50, not that far off of my goal of 3:20.

Monday morning I went out for a ride on my road racing bike (I just wanted to forget the kayak race). I wear mountain bike shoes with the Frog clipless clips. My right toes started to hurt and I realized this was the after effect of paddling in a race without a right foot peg. Then the whole race and training procedure went through my mind while peddling along the bike trail.

Suddenly it all became clear to me. While in the beer line I noticed Dr. Les Beale talking and laughing with none other than: 1. The picnic gal, 2. The surf skier, 3. Mark Jacobson, 4. The fast Gulfstream paddler and 5. Some Blackburn race officials.

Obviously, Dr. Les, to get back at me (see previous trip report titled “Counterclockwise Blackburn Circuit, 6/13/08â€) made prior arrangements with individuals 1. – 4. above to set me up. Then you might ask what about 5. The Blackburn officials.

It’s a complicated story. This year the Blackburn Challenge officials posted that this year’s race would follow the Sound Rower’s (SR) boat classification system. For kayaks the system relies on the ratio of the water line length to the water line width, call it the Sound River Number (SRN).

Thus if the SRN is less than 9.25 the boat is in the Sea Kayak class (SK)

If SRN is between 9.25 to 10.99 the boat is in the Fast Sea Kayak class (FSK)

Finally if the SRN is greater than 10.99 the boat is in the High Performance Kayak class (HPK) … these are the racing kayaks and surf skis.

After I heard about the new SR rules I used them to choose a new boat. I wanted an 18 foot boat that had an SRN close to or at the top of the FSK class. The Seda Impulse was such a boat. The newest Epic 18X has an SRN way over 11, so it fits in the HPK class and therefore I wouldn’t consider buying it for the Blackburn Challenge.

Here’s how I think Dr. Les tried to keep me out of the winner circle: Knowing that I wouldn’t buy the Epic 18X (because it’s not in the FSK class), somehow she was able to convince the Blackburn officials to make an exception to the SR rules and place the 18X into the FSK class. The most likely winner of the FSK race would be paddling the Epic 18X. And this actually happened (the 2008 winner was paddling the 18X).

There is one other factor. If you read “Counterclockwise Blackburn Circuit, 6/13/08†you will see that I carried Les’ boat to her car after doing it with my boat. I’m not sure, but I think, she swamped the hatches of her Impex while I was dealing with my boat. Her Impex is supposed to weigh less than 50 pounds. I had an awful tough time lifting her boat (it felt like if weigthed over 100 pounds). And that’s probably the cause of my tendenitis.

There’s one other matter to discuss. After I came back from the registration and check-in for the Blackburn race I noticed Les peering into my cockpit and holding a hammer. She said that she had picked up the hammer on the ground and was just admiring my foot peg system. I can’t believe it, but is it possible that she made some minor adjustments to my foot pegs?

Clearly, Les is a genius … but I forgive her; after all she loaned me a sponge for the race.

Dear Leon,

Now that you let the world know about my dastardly deeds, you forgot one small detail--how YOU got me--

As I was heading into the harbor--being dog-tired by Dogbar--my spare paddle got loose--water slapping, rollers rolling, butt aching, hands cramping--willing to walk on water if only I could to get out of that *##@@ boat--I had to decide whether to keep going and maybe lose my spare Epic paddle or try somehow to get the blades back on deck--sanity set in and I decided to fix the paddle and forget the minutes wasted--not that minutes really mattered with my time--

So Leon, the foot peddle, the rescue, the picnic lunch, the lost sponge, the sloppy conditions from Straitsmouth to Brace Cove pale in comparison to your single stroke of genius--just loosen the spare paddle on the back deck. Brilliant!

To be continued--Les is more--