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Whitehaven to St. Bees – The Race in On!

Rob Howard / 26.08.2011

The sun shone on Whitehaven as the Coast to Coast caravan of vehicles, bikes, boats, racers, organisers, press and supporters assembled by the newly redeveloped Marina. The car park was packed with an impressive collection of vans, spilling their contents of boxes, gear and mountains of food onto the tarmac and adorned with bike and kayak carriers. The crowds gathered around them sported a riotous collection of colourful outdoor gear from every major brand, muted a bit when they registered and put on their black or white adidas numbered race bibs, which they’ll be wearing for the next 4 days.

In the fine weather the sea paddle would go ahead, with the race starting on the water in the marina and a strange collection of boats was gradually assembled by the slipway. If you look at the entry list on the race website each racer or team is listed as elite or ‘own boat’, or they are shown as using a kayak supplied by the organisers. Rather than supply the same (safe and slow) boat to everyone, Open Adventure have a policy of allowing racers to use their own boats and setting a standard for their use (the 3* BCU Certificate). This encourages adventure racers to paddle to a higher standard, but it does mean boats of very different lengths, speeds and specifications race against each other.

So the assembled fleet included traditional sea kayaks, sleek, long surfskis, the stalwart race supplied Necky Amaruk doubles, and a range of racer owned boats of all varieties. The surfskis would be quicker (provided the paddler was skilled enough to stay in) but they are not robust adventure racing boats and would have to survive any surf at the end of the paddle and the knocks of the regular transitions of the race programme. It was a risk most of the elite racers were happy to take.

Among them were UK resident Kiwis Stuart Lynch and Fiona McBryde, and Fiona was happy with her Legend Surfski, “I borrowed it from my kayak club a couple of days ago,� she said, “and it only weights 8 kilos so will carry easily on the portage later today. Stuart’s is much heavier ... and it’s a bit bashed about!�

Lynch wasn’t looking too worried and was stretching and yawning at the time. “I’m still on US time.� He said. It’s amazing he is racing at all as he’s just returned from completing Expedition Idaho, a 5 day, 600km race where he was on the winning team. To come directly to a fast 4 day stage race like this one is a big ask, but he could still be among the leaders and so will McBryde in the female solo category. (Liam Drew won the solo class in the first race two years ago, so there is a precedent for a kiwi winner.)

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