The race was yesterday (27th).
I entered with a friend and we went along with two others who came for "artistic direction" and to support.
Our outfit consisted of a 17' Canadian canoe and a hotchpotch engine. Longshaft, 102cc, maybe a silver seagull?, Amal carb off some old motorbike, 2:1 gearbox and an alternative propeller. I'd had a not very well thought out tinker inside the engine, played with smoothing and widening bits here and there and adding bits elsewhere.
It was a great turnout and weather was superb, barely any wind and pretty warm. Must have been over 30boats.
Silent start went ok for us, starred on the second or third pull. The recoil start boys, (especially those with seagull 6s) got away but we were hot on their tails. We were easily the fastest boat. It would max out at a GPS measured 7knots and about 4500rpm (ouch).... However, after rounding the first corner, the motor slowed and died!
I didn't know what to suspect so after a few failed pulls, we paddled to shore and I went into quick diagnosis mode with the bare minimum tool kit. By now, the fastest couple boats were off and the pack was bearing down. Pulled the plug, whipped the bottom off the carb. Fuel:check, spark:check, compression:check. And it's running again!
By now the pack are mostly past us but we paddled back out and start off again, like something out of a Herbie film, we're accelerating through the pack, overtaking everything.
We no longer think we can win but are still keen for the fastest canoe trophy. However, it's not long before were loosing power again and we drift to a stop. This time I diagnose overheating straight away so we just leave it for a little bit and restart again. Now, we're doing much more checking of the water flow, it seems great most of the time but starts to struggle at speed. Any cavitation seems to really mess things up. Very much regretting the last 1" spacer I slipped into the transoms now!
We repeated this behaviour for a full lap. Skipper, Alex had had enough so dived ashore at the harbour to grab a can of cider. I took the helm and we collected the two others and we dicided to try the final lap as a four. By now, the seagull 6 boys were just coming in to the end of the second lap/finish. There was still a considerable bunch behind us though and we thought it would be fun to have everyone on board. Plus, the extra weight might help keep the pump in water.
With me driving now and everyone else having to navigate as with 3 people in front of me, I couldn't see anything, we once again ploughed on through the pack. With the extra cooling and perhaps a slightly more mechanically sympathetic helmsman we did a full lap with no problem. Home!
I don't know our position, we had to scamper off before the prize giving. It would've been very fun to have beaten the '6 guys with a very worn, cobbled together 102 but we had great fun anyway.
Thanks to all involved with the organisation, a brilliant day!
"Five gold rings!"
last minute, preflight checks
paddle out to the silent start
"a partridge in a pear tree"
start your engines!