When I started this blog I had no intention of posting my kayak race and competition results. Just not my style. However I’m going to make an exception to my publishing code just this time.
Normally at most all the kayak races, I use my 18′ Night Heron. There are size classes in all of the Kentucky Waterman Series races I’ve done this year are so I was always in the 16-18′ men’s Fast Sea Kayak class.
So at the last race of the season, the Big South Fork River Dash in McCreary County, Kentucky, I thought I’d take a chance on the African Queen 18 (AQ18).
The points series was going to go one of two ways, neither of which I could do much about at the last race so I figured why not give my Frankenstein, proof-of-concept, Lowe’s-fencing boat a try at an actual race. So I registered in the Kayak class (under 14′, it’s 13’7″) and amazingly I won my class.
The race was up and back 6.5 miles on a very calm river and I averaged 5.2 miles per hour beating second place by almost 10 minutes. Now under full disclosure, there were only three guys in my class and one didn’t show. But the fellow I did out-paddle ended up winning the Kentucky Waterman points series for the men’s kayak class.
AQ18 was stable in the water but tended to wander in a chop. I drafted a surf ski ( I will not take the time here to get on my soap box about surf skis not really being kayaks) for most of the race. AQ18 loved to set just six feet off the starboard stern riding the wave. The problem was when the surf ski would cross in front of me to turn, AQ18 would not follow the turn , rather it would pull across the wake in the opposite direction causing me to have to really steer, loosing some distance and having to work harder.
The way to fix that behavior would be to install a retractable skeg ( fixed fin). I don’t have plans for that at the moment but we’ll see. Hint: I’ve got something else that may keep me occupied this winter.
Hey, I might just drop a couple of classes and run the boat in a few races next year. Anything can happen. If so, I might have to go against the code again.