Sound Rowers Budd Inlet Race, September 23, 2000

The weather was perfect this year on Puget Sound. Temperatures were in the upper 60's to low 70's. The wind was from the north at about 3 to 4 mph, the skies were a beautiful shade of blue, and the seas were almost a dead calm.

This was quite unlike last year when outside the marina the winds were blowing to 35 knots, creating waves of 3 feet or more.

36 boats were registered for the 10 AM race. For the first time there was competition in the pedal powered class: three Nauticraft Escapades! We actually had our own class, the only difference between them being the racers, and the Sprite propeller on my boat.

The other Escapade racers were Meredith Lane (Rusty Lane's 17 year old daughter), and Ron McDonald (Rusty's first customer). This would be the first time that Ron, a big congenial man switching from the biking world to the boating world, had traveled any distance in his new boat, let alone raced in one. This was also the first race for Meredith; however, she and her father have been pedaling their Escapade quite a bit around Puget Sound.

The "paddle powered" boats included several single and double rowing shells, kayaks and canoes. For a couple of these entrants this was their first race, too.


Meredith and Ron

As the field of boats massed at the starting line, Meredith asked me how I knew which way to go. My answer was "Follow the boats ahead of you", drawing on past experience as some of the competition are nearly Olympic class racers. She did not seem to like that bit of advice, but there was not much else I could offer. There was a pre-race meeting with a map showing the mostly triangular course, as well as a description of the buoys and boats marking the vertices, but over distances of 2 or more miles some of these things can be difficult to discern.


Milling about waiting for the 5 minute signal.

Waiting for the 1 minute signal

Waiting for the starting signal

The horn sounded, and we were off! While pedaling I took some photos at this time of the boats around me, and did not see where Ron had gone. Meredith was going at quite a good clip, and we were traveling pretty much the same speed for the first half mile or so before my boat began to slowly pull ahead. After all, there is my reputation to uphold and it would not be good to let some rookies beat me at their first race! :-)


And they're off!

While pondering the possibility of finishing second or third I spotted a couple of seals poking their heads above water looking at me, and then diving below the surface. Gotta keep pedaling!

Heading into the slight northerly breeze with my windshield in place I was starting to get overheated. As quickly as I could I raised the bimini and opened the ceiling flap. This caused the air flowing over the windshield to be ducted downward and right into my face. Ahhhhh - just as Meredith was about to catch up to me, too!

By this time the majority of the race field had headed off to the northwest, a bit further west than I had expected. Oh, well. Perhaps they knew something that I did not. So, I followed them and soon found myself in one of the shipping lanes. Hmmm...Didn't the race organizers say that we were not going to be in the shipping lanes? Squinting off to the north I could see a couple of other boats heading towards, could it be? Yes - a tower with what could be the black and white marker!

Yes, the majority of the boats went quite a bit out of the way, but the pedal boats managed to not make quite as great an error.

Throughout this portion of the course we passed through what must have been thousands of jellyfish. They ranged in size from 1 to 3 or 4 inches in diameter, pulsating just below the surface of the water. Thankfully I did not run across (literally!) the larger ones that have been known to inhabit the region. It could have been a real mess to extricate one from my propeller!

After rounding the tower and heading towards the sailboat anchored on the far shore (also just out of my range of vision), my right pedal fell off. What good is a pedal boat if the pedals don't work?! Then it struck me - no, not the pedal - In replacing the original Escapade prop with the Sprite prop I had to reverse the drive unit in order to accommodate the reversed pitch of the Sprite prop. This meant that as I pedaled, there was now an unscrewing torque being applied to the pedals. Apparently the right pedal had not been adequately torqued onto the crank, became loose and fell off, taking a bit of the threads of the crank arm with it.


The second race marker was this sailboat.

After a bit of fiddling with the pedal I was able to partially thread it back onto the crank arm. Gingerly, I started pedaling, as Meredith was starting to catch up to me again!

Every couple of hundred feet I had to stop pedaling and tighten that pedal with my fingers.


My saviors!

As I approached the sailboat I called to them and asked if they had a wrench. As luck would have it, they did! A few quick turns with their wrench and everything was back in working order.


Meredith in hot pursuit.

By this time Meredith was but a few hundred yards from me, with Ron about the same distance from her. The kayak I had been trying to keep pace with had all but disappeared into the distance. Oh, well. Time to get moving!

Traveling south with the wind was extremely toasty. Sweat was dripping off my head, hair, back and fingers. Nearing a large houseboat anchored near the shore I decided that the windshield had to go if I were to get any cooling breeze.

The bimini came down, the T screws used to retain the windshield were all aligned with their slots, and off it went into the back seat. Up went the bimini and off I went, with that pesky Meredith right on my tail!


The view from the pilot's seat with the windshield removed and bimini up.

With only two miles to go I began to push harder. There was another kayak nearly even with me that was decided to take the shorter route along the shore. Since the race organizer commented that there is generally a counter current near there and that the longer route can be faster I took the longer route. Pedal, pedal, pedal, whew!

Finally the finish line dock appeared, and my boat was just ahead of the kayak I had earlier been pacing. The organizer was right after all!


The timing officials preparing to record another finish.


Meredith making it look easy.

With a time of 1:48:21 I set a new pedal boat record for this course. Meredith crossed the line at 1:52:54, also beating the old record. Ron crossed the line at 2:01:08, which was the fastest last place finish for this event.


Three Escapades docked in Olympia.

As Ron and Meredith docked their boats a seal poked up its head to get a better look. Just as I took out my camera for a photo the seal disappeared. Rats!

Lunch was provided for everyone, consisting of hamburgers, potato salad, beans, fruit, bagels and beverages. Afterwards, awards were handed out for the first three places in each category. Meredith received second place in the pedal category, and Ron received third.

A great day for an excellent race.


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