The Quartermaster Harbor Regatta is held in the bay separating Vashon Island and Maury Island in Puget Sound, due west of Seattle, WA.
This event is organized by the Vashon Island Rowing Club, Vashon Park District, 206-463-9602, and the Sound Rowers. It starts near the Jensen Pt. Boathouse at Burton Acres Park on the Burton Peninsula of Vashon Island.
This year the organizers chose to start the race at 9 AM in order to avoid the chop and noise created by the pleasure boaters and jet skiers that would be on the water later in the day. For those of us who don't live on the island, this meant that we had to board the 6:55 AM ferries, or come the previous day and stay the night. I chose the early ferry, and found that several other folks made the same decision.
The ferry cost me a little over $15 for a round trip ticket. There was a van carrying a triple rowing shell behind me that had to pay over $60 because of the over length premium caused by their roof top boat. Yikes! It reminded me how expensive it was two years ago when I towed an Encore to this race, and how glad I was that my roof top Cadence was 8 inches shorter than the next fee category.
After boarding the ferry I turned on my GPS and activated the route that I had preprogrammed into it for the race. This turned out to be quite helpful after arriving on Vashon, as the moving map display directed me to the proper turn to get to the Burton Peninsula. In my rear view mirror I noticed a couple of other folks with boats on top of their cars making the wrong turn and heading to Maury Island instead. They would figure it out sooner or later!
Arriving at Burton Park at about 7:30 I expected to see maybe a couple of cars in the large parking lot. Wrong! Even at this early hour the lot was almost completely filled. Cars, boats and people were everywhere.
I found a spot in front of a parked trailer and grabbed it.
Unloading the Cadence was pretty easy. The dolly worked flawlessly as I pulled the boat over to the loose gravel beach. I registered for the race and picked up a nice 2003 Vashon Island Rowing Club polo shirt that matched the color of my boat. After making another trip for my PFD, seat cushions, water, camera, GPS, canoe paddle, bungy cord, tow rope and wallet I began my photographic mission.
There were quite a few more rowing shells at this race, more than have been at the other Sound Rowers events so far this year. In addition to an 8 man shell there was a pair of 4 man shells, a pair of 3 man shells, several doubles and a slew of singles. In fact, 26 out of the 40 boats registered were rowing shells. The rest were miscellaneous rowboats, surf skis, high performance kayaks, regular kayaks, and one pedal boat.
This course was laid using several large orange buoys distributed around the harbor. Starting at Jensen Point we were to head north-northeast to the first buoy and go clockwise around it on the shore side. Following that the course heads east-northeast to the second one near the land bridge between Maury and Vashon Island. Going clockwise around that buoy the course continues south to the third buoy across the harbor and somewhat to the south of Jensen Point. After the third buoy the course continues in a south-southeasterly course to a buoy in front of the Dockton marina near the entrance to the harbor. After making a sharp U-turn around the buoy the course returns to Jensen Point for the finish.
The total distance traveled is about 5 statute miles.
After the pre-race meeting everyone headed to their boats and began hauling them down to the water. With so many rowing shells, and so many 3+ person shells, it took quite some time to get everyone out in the water. This was good, as it took me some time to realize that in order to remove the dolly from under my Cadence I was going to have to get my feet wet. Oh, well - at least the stones were not sharp and the water not too murky.
The usual mayhem of people rowing, paddling and pedaling in different directions more or less towards the starting line ensued. When the five minute warning signal was given the 8 man shell had to request other boats to move out of their way so that they could perform a sweep turn. Boy, that boat sure needs a lot of room! The light breeze from the south did not help, either, as it served to push everyone over the starting line.
The 8 was given a one minute lead in order to reduce the likelihood that they would be given troubles turning around the first buoy. One of the triple shells decided to go along with them, but at least this time the rest of the field waited for their starting signal.
A count down was given, and then we were off! As I started pedaling I realized that I had not reset my GPS trip odometer. So, rather than take pictures of all the other boats around me, I fiddled with it until it was reset, pedaling as best I could. With all the pre-race waiting what was I thinking??
It was a fast start, regardless. I was pumping hard, breathing hard and trying to snap pictures left, right, ahead and behind. I soon found myself nearing a woman in a Maas Aero 24, and decided to try following in her wake. I had to pedal quite hard in order to catch up, but there was a little less effort to maintain that position once I got there. With my speed now in the neighborhood of 8+ mph, every bit of assistance helps!
Apparently this rower had borrowed this boat, and she initially had some slight difficulties with steering. I pointed out the way she should steer in order to head to the first buoy, and we both rapidly headed there.
Nearing the buoy the field, which had spread itself quite widely over the harbor in order to reduce interference with each other, converged in order to make the turn. Since all the boats other than me making the turn at this time were shells, they took the turn rather widely. I was able to sneak in closer to the buoy and turn much more sharply, thus pulling ahead by one or two boat lengths.
Even with this temporary advantage my legs and lungs were not willing to work so hard. I decided to slow down a little, even if it meant that some of the boats would leave me in their wakes. I needed some recovery time!
A couple of sips of water and few moments of reduced pedaling later, and the boat I trailed to the first turn was now several boat lengths ahead. With a little more effort it seemed that I could catch up to her, at least by the next buoy. At that point, perhaps, I could maintain the pace following in her wake.
It seemed reasonable so, picking up the pace, I slowly gained on her. Slowly, slowly the distance between the Cadence and the Aero shrunk. I was able to catch up a couple of hundred feet before the buoy, where I was again able to cut the turn sharper than the shell. Whew!
The next leg of the course was a bit longer than either of the first two legs. Several boats were moored in the middle of the course so everyone, rowers in particular, had to take care so as to not plow into them or to get fouled in their anchor lines.
As the buoys were also not visible at this distance we also had to travel by the seat of our pants, knowing that the next turn was more or less "over there". My impromptu rowing pace boat partner and I traveled in parallel over a portion of this leg, and were gradually approached by a surf ski and a four woman shell.
As we neared the 3rd buoy I could see the first boats had already made the last turn and were heading down to the finish. The rower told me that the folks we could hear cheering were her family, and if it were possible she would like to have their picture taken. I told her that it would not be a problem, so long as they got within range! Anyway, the picture above is about as close as we got.
Heading south as we were into the wind made the breeze that much stronger by the speed of our passage. I was having troubles keeping my large "cool hat" pointed so that it wouldn't catch the wind and slow me down. Off my head it acted as something of a drogue chute; on my head it tended to flap up or down. Sigh...still, it was cooler than wearing a baseball cap or visor to keep the sun out of my eyes. The wind did a wonderful job of keeping me cool!
For some reason some of the boats chose to stay closer to the shore. Others chose to stay further out in the harbor. I directed my personal pace rower straight to the 4th buoy, and we all arrived at about the same time. Well, with the exception of the folks who chose to go way to the west of us, that is. They had to make a last minute change of direction to correct their error!
I made a quick sharp turn around the 4th buoy and started putting extra effort on the pedals. I was promptly awarded with the sensation of suddenly running out of gas and being in a dead, stifling calm. What on earth was happening?
Ok, so now I'm traveling with the wind, so the sun was now beating down mercilously. Thank goodness I decided to take my hat after all! Still, there must have been some current flowing against us, as it seemed we all were going much slower than before.
While I was pondering this a man in a black surf ski that had been somewhat behind the entire race made his move and pulled ahead. I was able to latch onto his wake and maintain his pace, but damn it was hot out here! Even the act of dropping my hands and forearms into the water every so often did not seem to help much. Whew!
We continued under those sweltering conditions, paddling and pedaling. The 4 woman shell gradually approached on our port side and slowly started passing. I switched over from following the surf ski to following the shell, and was able to stay in their wake for a short time. The speed they were making coupled with the heat, however, was too much for me and off they sped.
The surf ski soon caught up and passed me.
I thought of the conditions in Europe where Lance Armstrong was riding in the Tour de France. He had much worse conditions to contend with, I thought. Here I can cool myself off at any time by dunking my arms in the water. There, he had no such opportunities during the race. I dunked my arms and took a long swig from my water bottle.
I would not let that surf ski cross the finish line before me. It was time to put the hammer down!
I began breathing faster and more deeply as I pushed and pulled at those pedals. The buzz sound of the chain and the gear box increased in pitch as the crank moved faster and faster. The boat seemed to leap out of the water as the distance between it and the surf ski diminished, slowly at first, and then with increasing speed.
I took one last photo before stowing the camera. This was going to be an all out effort!
The finish line was seaward of the buoy just off Jensen Point. I could see some of the other boats had mistakenly gone shoreward and then had to make a last minute correction in order to properly finish the race. Making a bee line straight to the buoy I pumped those pedals as hard as I could, feeling the lactic acid building up in my thighs. A rowing shell and the women's 4 were just ahead, the air horn blasting as they each crossed the finish line. Just a few more seconds and I would be there!
Bleat! The air horn signaled my race was over, with a time of 45:50 and a distance of about 5 miles. Whew!!
It was a long four seconds before the surf ski made it across the line.
Rather than taking my boat out of the water I chose instead to cruise about a few hundred yards from the finish line taking pictures of the other incoming racers, and generally just enjoying being out on the water. When the last of the racers finished I returned to the boat launch.
Several people were quite interested in the Cadence, so I let them take it for a test drive. They were all really impressed with its speed, stability, maneuverability and cargo space.
After a while the awards ceremony was held. The results of the first place finishers were pretty impressive: a Men's MX-II finished the race in 34:26 - ahead of the 8 man shell, which had a time 34:50! Also, with the exception of Greg Gilda, a real powerhouse athlete who paddles an HPK and had a time of 41:06, no paddle propelled boat finished before me! Still, I was in 19th place in a field of 40 boats, so there is definitely room for improvement.
One of the race officials who saw my final sprint said, "Boy, if you could maintain that level of effort for any length of time, you would be incredible! You left that surf ski as though he was standing still!"
It looks like my work is cut out for me.
The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.
The course I followed during the race and some metrics can also be found there by clicking on the last image in the photo gallery.