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Shaw Island race report 2016
Reivers Dustin
08/21/16 #19854
Quite a good turnout. Howard was race organizer, timer, committee, caterer and entertainment director. Everyone lied about which way around was best and which way they were going. Almost everyone actually did counter clock wise. The four-man rowers had the lead with Joost pacing them close for a long time. I started out alittle behind Peter Turcan, John Day, Heather, LB with some rowers in the mix. At different times one of those ahead of me would try out the current in mid-channel and lose some ground. So first half favored tucking into shore and working back eddies. Current was strong, not much wind, no wind waves, but fair amount of boat swell. The swell kinda messed up some of the rowers. LB played a good back eddie and snuck past Turcan. When Turcan was drafting LB he found weeds and I snuck by him while he was clearing. John Day and LB were dicing pretty well at the start of that long bay down the west side. LB edged out mid-channel. Up ahead Heather was tucked in. After a while I noticed LB getting a huge current push. So I gave up my line and swung way outside of LB. My GPS showed consistent 8's. I climbed past John Day and noticed Heather stuck in huge backflow. LB got past Heather and near the last big turn I did as well. Our finish was probably Joost, LB, me, Heather, John Day, Peter Turcan. The four-man rowers were just off the course record. I was just over 2 hours.
Afterwards we enjoyed cookies, watermelon, chip n dip, lunch meat and PBJ type sandwiches (make 'em yourself). Very hot day, kids were going wild playing in the water.
I had forgotten how tricky and dominant the currents were in this race. It's long enough for you to lose your focus and mistakes or bad luck can explode your race.
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