Coquet Canoe Club ‘Round the Island’ Race 2009

Coquet CC has been in existance for 21 years now, and this is the 20^th race round Coquet Island that they have organised.

We could not have had abetter day for it. There was a light swell, and gentle breeze, even the sun shone!.

The race starts on the Coquet Estuary, about a mile from the harbour mouth. This is a small fishing harbour, one of the many on

the Northumberland coast. Coquet Island is about a mile offshore and about half a mile long. It is an important bird sanctuary,

with thousands of terns, (including the rare Roseate Tern) and puffins nesting there. It is also home to a large grey seal colony.

Tides dictated an afternoon race this year and we had a record turn out of competitors, nearly running out of bibs to issue. 67

boats set off from the start – mainly seakayaks, but we also had an outrigger, 5 wavehoppers, two doubles and 3 ‘short’ boats.

We allow any boat to take part, provided it is seaworthy for the conditions on the day, but the main prizes are for the seakayaks.

If there are suffient boats in a ‘class’, we will give trophies for this as well – it all gets decided on the day!

As usual, the age range was great. For once, we had a reasonable number of Seniors – (14), but the Veterans was the largest class (23),

followed by the Superveterans (45 –54) (17). There were 5 Grand Old Men (55 – 64) and 4 Old Men of the Sea (65 – 74) plus one

Old Woman of the Sea. The oldest paddler was 72, but the youngest was 11 – Beth Hailwood in a double with her father. 16 year

Calum Bradbury was the only junior in a seakayak, but 14 yr old Connor Dickinson must have had the hardest race, paddling the

course in a Masterlite, even surviving a capsize. He had a strong support party from his club, a group who make a habit of backmarking

the race – two years ago they went round with Paul Burgess, then aged 80.

There were 11 female entries – the fastest in a seakayak being Kate Duffus, being placed 13^th overall. The fastest lady was

Kendal Mayes, in an outrigger.

Conditions were good, and times were fast. John Burleigh came in in 44 mins 22 secs, four minutes faster than the next paddler.

This may be a course record. The next 20 paddlers came in within 5 minutes of each other, 38 taking less than an hour.

While we always welcome paddlers who do the race as a personal challenge, who aren’t in regular competion training,

(and in past years they have been the bulk of the race,) it does seem that the ‘top end’ is getting more competitive.

Taking your competition seriously means picking the right boat for the job, and we are seeing more people entering with custom-built

racing seakayaks. We can’t make it a level playing field – no two seakayaks are comparable at the best of times.

The diffence a boat makes is even more marked in the Junior event, for under 4m boats. Here we had 15 paddlers (they turn round a

buoy just outside the harbour). The event was won by Robert Naylor, hotly pursued by Ari Hodgson and Connor Turner, all paddling

boats approaching 4m in length. Most of the home club juniors haven’t been paddling long, and chose boats they were comfortable in

– but an Inazone is never going to beat a slalom boat! For them, the challenge was completing the course. Next year…

In summary – a great day, good weather, fantastic views and wildlife, and stiff competition for those who wanted it, but for everyone

else a personal challenge. Many thanks to the safety boat

Vic Brown

COQUET CANOE CLUB

20th "ROUND THE ISLAND RACE"

21th June 2009

Key

AM (75+) OMS (65+) GOM ( 55+), Svet (45+)

J(yr5)

J(yr6)

J(yr7)

Vet (35+)

Sen (16+)

Juniors (16-)

J(yr8)

J(yr9)

J(yr10)

Races

DNF

=Did not finish

Around Coquet Island

5.5

miles

14+

Start Time

00:00

Elapsed

Boat

Position

Bib No

Name

Age

Sex

Time

Class

Description

Club

John Burleigh

0:44:22

Rapier 20

Deeside Thistle

John Bunyan

0:48:30

Epic 18X

Macclesfield/ NWSK

Mark Ledger

0:48:31

Tees Tigers

Glen Parry