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.