Mix & Match K2 Round the Loop

A fair selection of members turned up to paddle Round the Loop on New Year's Eve at varying times. A chilly upstream wind only spoiled the sunny conditions over the last bit from the Suspension Bridge to the club, with some fairly lumpy chop.

Ian, the chairman & Des set off with Jimmy just after 9:00 as Chris was getting off the water.

The juniors with a few extras did my normal 9:30 session making up for the shortage of the regular "mums" this week. Tadek and Olivia talked their way round, a discrete distance behind the nearest boat. Zyggy and Harvey worked solidly all the way. Ozzie made sure that he and his mum were well at the front from start to finish and Ricky pushed me the distance. Noah was the youngest by far and managed the 10 miles with his dad in considerable style, reaching the club well ahead of everyone except Ozzie & Alison.

Shob & Kath opted for going to Beeston up the river & back so Kath could avoid portaging, while Adam set off to do the Loop alone, just as we headed for the showers.

Well done to all the juniors who turned out, thanks to the seniors who partnered juniors.
Some members may well want to do the usual Mix & Match K2 on Friday evening, but those of us who did the extended version in lieu on Thursday morning, propably got the best deal.

For those who have never done The Loop and want details click here.

New Year's Race

This year, the Resolution Race on the Soar was a little before New Year so that we could do the Frank Luzmore K2 as well. It was sad to see such a low turn out this year, but not from NKC. Banbury made up the majority of the race and fortunately the organiser paddled or Soar Valley would not have had a single entry.

They were there doing the rest of the stuff, like starter/finisher, marshals at the key places and cooking the hot food.

The Chairman set a good example by winning the K1 race and Norman & Des did the same in K2. There was enough water in the river to use understern rudders on the old river bed and to make it interesting, but not so much that the measuring weir was a raging torrent. In fact, the wind blown chop on the Trent is probably more demanding.

Andrew deserves a mention as he finished just as the prize giving did, but was in time to collect his can of beer prize. In fairness he did do further than most of us and his GPS track shows that he took frequent detours and managed to make about 10.5 miles. On the other hand, having done the race quite a few times over the past 30 odd years, I only travelled 9.7 miles.

The facilities are not placial, but the very relaxed and friendly atmosphere at Soar Valley together with the "rustic" course, mean it's worth doing if only to shake off the Christmas cobwebs and burn a few calories - make it one of your resolutions to be there next year. Details will appear on the NKC website.

Two Broken Rudders? Trent K2 2009

Well I remember better Trent K2 races and I remember worse. Worse would be the years when there were blizzards, head winds, a hole in the boat, broken paddles and one year when my partner and I were so unfit that the last 5 miles seemed to last for days.
Better would be any other Trent K2 in the last 20 years! It was nothing to do with my partner, as the boat ran well apart from the last bit and there was no way we could keep it moving in a straight line for more than 50 metres or so.
We were never going to be with the leading boats as some of the other crews have obviously escaped the promotion opportunities in the last month or two (little do they know ...) we did however settle into a small group well down the field before the 1st portage. The rest had obviously not been listening at the briefing because they all chose the difficult "get in" at Sawley, while we jogged slowly to the comfortable beach portage about 100 metres further down the bank. Steve from Leighton Buzzard was well ahead of us at the start of the portage, but there was just a chance we could get with him if we were .... oops, rocks! I'd taken too narrow an angle in my haste to get on the wash. That was rudder no. 1. No worries, I always have a spare in the boat on such races. The wing nut was a bit rusted on and it took considerable force to undo it and get the spare out. Remind me to use a plastic one in future. Then I couldn't get enough slack in the rudder lines to get the wheel onto the new rudder until I noticed that they were snagged under the buoyancy. All this on a desert island in the middle of the Trent with the rest of the races going past us. I spotted the back markers in the A race slide by, well before we were back on the water.
Fortunately there was a crew in the B race who were only a little faster than we were, so we had a decent wash nearly to the Cranfleet Cut. This got us past the back markers in the A race. We also had a reasonable portage despite the height of the "get out." It was a bit of a lonely plod to Beeston, but we were going reasonably well until the portage, when ting the spare rudder caught on the step and we lost no.2.
Donna agreed to carry on and we tacked our way the 5 miles to the finish line, having gone aground on the shallows by Monkey Island on the way. We had swapped places at that point and I ended up with Donna's seat and my knees by my chin. There must be something odd about her anatomy if she can sit on that seat for more than 5 miles - I will never speak in the same pitch.
We weren't last and we finished before the prize-giving and before everyone else had gone home. As I said not the worst Trent K2 I can remember doing, but definitely not the best. Thanks Donna, I hope you can promise me that we will only have "an adventure" every alternate race we do together.

Lincoln 2009

I needed a break from moving the club website from uk.geocities to Google and the allotment has had loads of time recently, so what better change of location than Lincoln Hasler race.
It was a mixed day as far as weather was concerned, with warm, bright sunshine, sudden sharp showers and wind. The usual Lincoln interest was provided on the 8 mile course by the low bridges at the end of Brayford Pool, but most people seemed to get under with reasonable ease.
My race was not the most enjoyable ever, getting dropped in the first half mile, however the company of Jamie from Leamington stopped it being a boring drag. He's probably about 45 years younger than me and it won't be very long before he's disappearing into the distance too. A couple of changes of position added some spice, when we were caught and dropped by a Burton paddler, only to recatch him and drop him just before the finish.

The real action was going on at the head of our race where Norman was coming 2nd and in Div 3 where Ian was also in the medals. Damian managed a place in Div 8, but no promotion, while Ricky got both in Div 6.
For sheer value for money, Andrew, who is ranked Div 7, so could do the 4 mile course, opted to do Div 6 and the 8 mile course, but missed the turn buoy about 200 metres from the finish and did the 12 mile course instead!
Then it was a rush back to Nottingham for the club Annual Award presentations.

More photos from Caroline on Picasa.

Surfing Weekend

A whole collection of NKC families and individuals made their way to that sufing paradise of the north east coast .... Satburn-By-The-Sea. The weather was kinder than the forecast suggested, the surf was as big as the predictions, but not as well formed. None of this altered the determination of those there to have a good time. The motly collection of kayaks, sit-on-tops and boogie boards took to the sea en masse on Saturday, with some die-hards only getting off the water for a bite to eat and a drink before getting out there again.
Some of us had already done a session on the biggest surf on Friday afternoon, all did at least one session on Saturday and most could not resist another one on Sunday & Mick did all four.

So a new generation has been introduced to the delights of Saltburn and camping at Runswick Bay and most are sure to return now that the bug has bitten. The prize for the most waterlogged should be shared by Eddie & Matt who were hardly out of the water long enough to swallow the hastly lunch that parents insisted on distracting them with.

Thanks to Gilly for the coaching. Thanks to Caroline for the photos. The rest are in the Picasa Album or the NKC Gallery.

Shropshire Paddlesport Hasler Race

The Montgomery Canal at Queens Head near Oswestry was the venue for this week's Hasler race. As with Hereford, only a small group of Nottingham paddlers made the two and a bit hour trek to race. The weather was hot, the canal was narrow, but the welcome warm. The refurbishment of the old Green Barn is well under way, so facilites are likely to be much better in future years.
For a change there were no trophies for NKC, but the 4 of us managed to score 61 points, giving 4 Hasler points. The Host club scored the 10 points and Worcester scored 9 points leaving them only 5 points behind us on the Midlands Hasler Table.

For the rest of the details use the links below.
Race results.
More photos.

Hereford 2009

An early start, a long drive and weather that was cooler and wetter than Nottingham was all worthwhile for the success of the elite band that made the journey. Damian was 2nd in Div 8, Mick & Ricky 2nd in Div 5 K2 after a close race with Jon Cave & Ellie Andrews of Worcester. Alice won Div 6 just 1 second up on John Talbot also of Worcester.

The rest of the photos: click here.
Full results: soon.