racing

Sat - June 3, 2006

The 3rd Season of the Virtual Race by Kayak and Canoe

In 2003 I tried to compare a cruising speed of different boats from my paddling fleet. It was in preparation for 300 mile WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. I paddled 18 miles around my local lake: Cruising speed comparison. However, that test was taking a lot of time, so I reduced the distance to 5 miles, and later invited other paddlers. It was the beginning of the virtual race that is now in its third season. The idea remains the same: to paddle the race distance, record your results by GPS and submit data for posting.

This year the virtual race moved to a new website. At the same time I added several new features:

1000 m sprint race in addition to marathon 5 and 10 mile distances
point system to promote participation, award faster racers, and also to encourage to race different boats by the same paddler and to add some spice
submission form
more information about virtual racers and their boats

Everybody is invited to race! Solo, tandems or adventure racer teams. Any paddling boats and paddlers of all skill levels. You can submit as many entries as you wish to show your progress. The current race entries include solo touring, sea and racing kayaks, surfski, unlimited safari boats, and some canoes. No tandem entries yet.

GPS is recommended to record distance and time, but you can also use SpeedMate or similar devices. GPS units designed for training like Garmin Forerunner or Edge are ideal but the simplest GPS units, e.g., Garmin Etrex, will work just fine.

The 5 mile and 10 mile entries are recorded as: (1) "cruisers" with the average speed below 6 mph, and (2) "racers" with the average 6 mph or higher. It should be easier to analyze the results and you can get promoted to the higher category. I have my own entries in both divisions. The results of supermen paddling above 7 mph are typed in red. You can achieve a high point standing in the virtual race by paddling fast or by multiple entries, especially, with different boats.

Posted at 08:53 AM Read More

Wed - November 9, 2005

CoastRunner - A New Kayak Design and New Virtual Race Entry

Bjørn Johansen from Denmark entered the 5 mile virtual race in a new kayak of his design: Coastrunner, length 5.20m (17'0.7"), beam 0.54m (21.25").

Bjørn paddled CoastRunner with the average speed of 7.03 mph over 5 miles. Earlier this year he entered the race twice with the Escape kayak reaching 6.98 mph and 7.20 mph.

From the kayak description: CoastRunner is conceived as an all-round kayak, firmly rooted in the Scandinavian kayaking tradition, where touring and racing are important parts of the activities in most clubs. This crossbreeding of racing and cruising has led to rules for touring-racers, with limits on the waterline beam. Experience has shown that the stability of the most advanced designs for the touring-racer class may be a bit on the challenging side for many paddlers, under less than ideal conditions.

The lines of the CoastRunner are based on one of the most successful designs in this class, the Escape, by the same designer. CoastRunner is however designed without regard to any specific rules. The traditional length, 5.2 m, is maintained. The waterline beam is increased about 5 % in comparison to the Escape, which corresponds to an increase in metacenter height (a measure of static stability) of 15 %. The cost of this increase in stability is a loss in speed of 1-2 %, when compared to the Escape. The pronounced flare of the midship sections increases the waterline beam with displacement, and gives the boat excellent handling qualities over a large load range.

Bjørn on Escape: I designed the boat in 1988, and it became quite popular (see pictures of the recent version in Willy Neumann production). Nelo produced the boat as a subcontractor to Kirton, and by accident marketed the boat as their own (pictures). Nelo later produced the Razor, which is very similar to the Escape, apart from the rear deck.

Posted at 12:25 AM Read More

Tue - June 28, 2005

Texas Water Safari 2005 - It's Not Getting any Easier !

It was our 5th year of Texas Water Safari experience. In 2001, we came to Texas as observers and I paddled about 1/3 of the safari course in my home made Patuxent kayak. In 2002 and 2003 I run the race solo in Spencer X-treme canoe with Connie as my team captain and finished in 78:19 and 66:05 hours respectively. We came again to San Marcos in 2004 but the race was postponned twice due to flooding and we couldn't make the later date.

In 2005 I paddled solo again and finished in 69:29 hours. My 2005 safari was slower than my 2003 race. I believe that the weather was hotter and there were more obstacles in the river after last year flooding (at least I was hitting them more often than in 2003 ...). Good news: no injuiries, minimal damage to the body and no stomach problems which were really annoing during my two previous safaris. I used the same sport drinks but had more clear water than before. I was taking endurolytes pills every two hours or so. It seems that for each safari I am packing less food than for the previous one.

After three finished safaris I can repeat after Jack Spencer: "It's not getting any easier".
Texas Water Safari 2005

This year I took a digital camera with me: a tiny waterproof Pentax Optio WP, not much larger or heavier than a power bar. The camera survived the safari without any problems. Connie was also shooting with a help from companion TCs with my older Canon PowerShot S40. I compiled our pictures into our 2005 safari story. There is also a lot of good pictures from the race available already on-line.

The split time results from the TWS 2005 has been posted on-line, so it's time to analyze the race and to start thinking about the next year.

As usual the race organization was great with a lot of volunteers. Thank you!

Posted at 01:18 PM

Scouting San Marcos River: Westerfield-Martindale

Scouting San Marcos River: Palmetto-Gonzales

virtual racing 2005: 5 and 10 mile time trials

Colorado River 100 race from Bastrop to Columbus, TX

Pictures from Colorado 2004 racing: Canoe Colorado Race, White River Run, Paddlefest