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Great River Race - London 2002
A race report for you on the Great River Race - London, England - this is a race that I can recommend to all of you if you can get over to England in September - there is nothing like it.
Saturday 7th September - 200+ boats met in Richmond, South West London to begin a 22 mile race along theThames, finishing at Greenwich.
The race is billed as a handicap race - with crews handicapped on the type of boat they race in not the crew themselves.
To add to the handicap, all boats should have a cox and a passenger - a cox in an OC6? No problem we have a steerer. But the race rules stipulate that the cox cannot paddle. Hmm. However as OC6s have raced this race
for a few years now the rules have been bent a little - steerers can paddle 30% of the time. What about the passenger? A very small child? No, you have to have someone over 10 years old. Next best thing - get a
female cox - light and knows the local water - so each oc6 has a 55kg weight sitting on the back iako.
200+ boats - yes - but there are only 6 outrigger canoes in the whole of England - so who else? This race is the biggest single event on the Thames - amongst that 200 boats were cutters, coracles, dragonboats, Celtic
longboats, skiffs, gigs, and whalers from all over the UK, Ireland, and Europe.
With the scene set - on the day the race starts with the high tide - so you have a fast current to play with as you head for Greenwich. This year race day was on a "neap" tide - extra fast, and it's a
jubilee year in England - an auspicious time to try and break the 2 hour 6 minute record set by Kingston a few years back in a dragonboat!
For the race the outriggers were handicapped around 64-66 minutes behind the slower boats. Of the 5 OC6's racing these were as follows:
- Middlesbrough OCC
- an open crew racing in Wa'alele (a renovated malia donated by Hawaiian paddlers back in the 1970's. It is now paddled by a bunch of nutcases who have completed Molokai and the English channel crossing and are still being hunted by French customs);
- Kingston Royal OCC - a women's crew racing in Keiki Wa'alele – a malia born out of a mould taken off Wa'alele;
- ocuk
- 3 crews - an open crew racing in Haku (a 1990), Paea (a mixed crew racing in a 1990) and, Maroro (a mixed crew racing in a malia also born from Wa'alele's mould. The names of the boats are taken from Maori meaning Kingfish, Swordfish and Flying Fish respectively).
As the OC6's set off, the challenge was to pass the other slower boats as fast as possible, dodging oars, fast moving ferries, and avoiding traffic around the 20+ bridges on the Thames.
If you've done the Liberty challenge then this is quite similar.
During the race, ocuk’s open crew opened up a good lead on the other crews, which they go on to hold over the race. They are followed by ocuk Mixed 1, two fast moving open crews from
Thames Dragonboat club and Colenorton Dragonboat club, ocuk Mixed 2, a Thames Dragonboat women's crew, Kingston and then Middlesbrough OCC. Oh and 200 other boats all racing to beat the record.
As the race developed and boats get spread further out, for the outriggers it is about working their way through the field, trying to break the course record, and showing British crowds
hanging out on bridges that Hawaii 5-0 was real. We lost count of the amount of Hawaii 5-0 anthems that were sung by other crews and curious spectators.
Finally, after 2hours and 8 minutes and having paddled past 205 crews, ocuk paddled across the finish line as the first OC6, 3rd overall in the handicap, but with the fastest time of
the day.
Of 212 boats that finished, 8 were paddle powered, all finishing strongly and showing the rowers that there is another sport on the Thames to look out for. 2 boats sank.
Interested to do it next year - keep an eye on the website:
http://www.greatriverrace.co.uk
or contact us for more details.
Cheers,
Tim
Click here for photos of the race
Download this Excel spreadsheet for results summary
Liberty Challenge - New York 2002
ocuk's maiden paddle abroad was to the Liberty Challenge in New York. Racing
against us were the Kingston Royals - a competitor outrigger club also in London. This now became a race within a race to see which British team could make it home first.
With our canoes having arrived in April we had 8 weeks to get in shape. Most of the club were also dragonboaters so had been getting paddle fit on one side since
January, but outrigging at much longer distances was definitely a different prospect.
We also imagined a number of large Hawaiian crews coming over so paddled with some fear to get our fitness and canoe skills up to try and match a lot of more experienced crews.
The team that travelled was Caroline Jenner, Claire Cooper, Tim Osborne, Jack Wormald, Elaine Smith, and Bobby Furby helming.
Arriving in New York on the Friday night the whiff of testosterone was strong enough for the girls to get (mildly) distracted. The boys however managed to round 'em up
without too much chest beating and get them fed and watered - achieved at a local Italian where we also met the owners of the Force 5 we were borrowing. A great bunch of guys from the East coast of the US.
They had just got their boat and as ours at the time, it had no name - we immediately felt that this was a good omen.
On the morning of the race day, we raced off to see the start of the Women's and then Open race. Both went off well. The atmosphere was great - lots of paddle talk, lots to
learn from the way paddlers had put their waka together, and lots of new kit that we wanted to get our hands on.
As our race start approached (3pm) we were anxious to get going - all the fuel was in, the kids had been dropped at the pool on numerous occasions, and bodies were raring to go.
As our waka came in to the race start with the East Coast guys in we had little time to do anything but get in and go. As we left the pontoon in the shadow of the huge US
aircraft carrier, the tension was on the rise - this was the first time we had paddled in this Force 5 and it was a newun!
At the start line - what start line? it was a case of watching everyone else and trying to pick a line. The line we picked was immaterial and as we sprinted off at the start
everyone got into a rhythm quickly and off we went.
5 minutes into the race I guess the most surprising thing was that we were well placed in the middle of the pack. At least my expectation for our first race internationally was
that we would be paddling well but near the back.
Another 5 minutes gone and we had played a bit of cat and mouse with a few crews - had a couple of light knocks as boats where thrown around by larger boats' wake,
and held it together without a word - everyone had one thought and that was to get ahead and make some space between some of the waka near us.
Then disaster nearly struck - one of the larger ferries making its way quickly down the river kicked up a large wake which hit us hard from the amah side. The ama shot
about 50 degrees into the air and I felt a collective "oh shit!" come from all of us. Fortunately Wormald and Osborne in the engine room slammed paddles down with no hesitation and we were safe and off.
The thought of going over at such an early stage gave all of us a lot of energy for the oncoming race.
As the 12 mile race progressed along the course - taking us along the south side of the river and towards the Statue of Liberty, the crew ran well- we chased down around
3 crews with no-one challenging us from behind - a great feeling.
All that we did know was that there were at least 8 crews ahead of us still, including the Kingston Royals who had shot off at the start.
As we approached the half way point and the turn we had made our way past one more crew. Thanks to helm Malibu Bob, we turned on a dime - getting the speed up
before the turn and whipping her round - when we looked up again we had made a load of distance on the next boat infront of us.
7th.
As we powered towards this next crew we knew we had em - and thanks to some flat water very comfortingly similar to the Thames we seemed to gain on every stroke - and got em.
6th.
The next crew in our sights was a Canadian crew - close enough to chase down. We pulled them in and got level with them. This was going to be the best struggle of the
day. We pulled past them, they reeled us in. It seemed like they had pulled away from us taking a close line to the edge of the pontoons. Malibu responds taking us way out
into the middle of the river - away from the competition. We then forget about them and concentrated on riding some good swell from the other boats cruising around.
Minutes later we are up on the Canadians and looking good, they are responding though and it's gonna be a tough battle. Then, one of their crew drops a paddle - a
shout goes up from them and eyes from our boat shoot over - they are down to 5 until they can get a spare blade. The shout goes up in our waka and we all set up at a massive sprint to get some space in between us.
5th.
Nearing the last quarter of what was going to be a 2 hour race we were along way behind the next crew - but pulling away from the crews behind. We hammered on and
slowly reeled them in. At the final buoy we had about 6 lengths to catch up and not much gas in the tank. Pushing on they realised we were going for them and stayed ahead for the finish line.
5th in just under 2 hours.
A fantastic feeling as our first race - all paddlers gave their all and totally enjoyed the race.
To make the day better the Kingston crew had made 2nd place in the race, very narrowly missing out on the 1st .
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