| First Race // Event 15 August 2009 By: Rob Pirie Location: Sunshine Coast The Hervey Bay based Kai Puna outrigger canoe club hosted the first regatta of the session and for the first time it included SUP divisions. We arrived at Torquay Beach weary eyed from our 3:30am start at the Gold Coast and thought we were seeing things looking out into the bay as this thumping 20kn northerly ripped it up. This normally calm bay had waves breaking on the beach. The format called for a triangular course which was just not possible in these conditions, it looked like the race was going to be called off and our 4.5 hour drive had been a waste of time. Sue Sheard from the Sunshine Coast met with the officials and talked them into letting us do a downwinder. Sue called us over and shared her good news and then pointed across the bay to Point Vernon and said, "That's the straight line over there boys, about a 7km run back to here". It wasn't a perfect downwinder course but we were stoked just to be racing. The boards were loaded onto one of the cars and off we went. As we pulled into the carpark at Point Vernon there was an eerie calm as the Northerly wind was held at bay by the giant granite bluff, the water was calm and glassy but you only had to look out 100m to see the lines of white caps sliding across the bay. I loaded the camera gear onto the jet ski and headed out to the start line, everyone struggled to paddle across the wind to the start with the light-weight race boards getting blown out from under their feet. Local girl Janita Knowles and Sue Sheard were given a two minute headstart from the men. It was meant to be longer but the wind was blowing the male paddlers off the course and we just had to start it. All four of the male paddlers were from the Gold Coast.  It was a difficult race with the wind coming across the course. Everybody except Dale Chapman decided to point slightly into the wind and keep as straight a course as possible, Dale's tactic paid off as he quickly surfed away with the wind and swell at his back.  Sue showed what a quality paddler she is mixing it up with the boys, Janita maintained a slower but solid rate and it wasn't long before the boys wound her in. Simo was struggling in the conditions but still managed to string together some long runs. The real race was between Clarky on his Ejaculator 18 and Brett on his DC12'6". They were neck and neck the whole race. As Dale pushed further across the bay he came across a back eddy from the scattered sand banks and the rest of the field that stayed wide started to pull him back in. Sue with her great surfing skills steered her DC17 right back up beside Brett and Clarky and with the shifty conditions Brett soon found himself right next to Sue. The next gust of wind pushed him on top of Sue's board, completely taking her out. They gathered themselves and kept paddling but Clarky put in the big ones and pulled away moving into clear second.  Dale made his dog-leg turn inside the bay and started to pull away from the field again building an insurmountable lead. He looked smooth and balanced doing it easily on his bright orange DC17. Brett started the hard chase to pull Clarky back, milking every little run he could and started to make up some real ground but Sue couldn't maintain the new pace and slowly started to drop back. As the finish line drew closer they could see Dale already standing on the beach. Both their right arms were burning from paddling on the one side. They put in one last mammoth effort and it was Clarky's big white beast that touched the sand first, closely followed by Brett, Sue, Simo and then a grandstand finish from Janita burying her nose into the sand on the finish line.  It was a fun race and it really attracted some interest from the crowd. Hopefully we can look forward to some more entrants in the next regatta.  Final Results Dale Chapman (Unlimited) - 36.30 mins Rod Clark (Unlimited) - 37.05 mins Brett Williams (12'6") - 37.10 mins Sue Sheard (Unlimited) - 38.59 mins Bob Simpson (12'6") - 42.10mins Janita Knowles (12'6") - 48.45 mins | |
