Good news, not so good news, and “not everything goes according to plan” news…….
Good: I counted 45 paddlers on the results sheet, and 6 promotions, all in the lower Divisions:
Cosima (J), Peter N-J and Guy Peters from Div 7 to Div 6
Arthur (J) (C1) and Lilla (J) from Div 8 to Div 7
Carlos (J) from Div 9 to Div 7, and Melody (J) and Peter Q from Div 9 to Div 8
Other great results were in Div 3 where Ben Powell, Joe Webb and Oliver Khlaf came 2nd, 4th and 5th (out of 18 starters) and in Div 6 where Emily Powell came 4th (beating Tanya H who came 5th, but then, in mitigation, DW does have its after effects).
And in the Lightening race there were wins for Francis H and Zoe, and a 2nd for Eve (see photo above for selection of the Junior podium persons).
Overall points: Richmond were 2nd (Wey were 1st).
Not so good: sad not to have Tim on the scene, who is away, and will be away for a while.
Jeff and John managed to combine hefty junior organisation duties with paddling (Jeff with Anthony in Div 6 K2 and John in Div 5 K1 in Epsilon).
No paddling for Sue who devoted herself to marshalling the little ones.
“Not all goes according to plan”: Allyn (Div 7) had a race capsize (Iain, having left a critical item of kit at home, paddled in her wet Richmond T shirt for his subsequent Div 6 K2 race with Mike Foster).
Arnim (Div 4) had a race capsize (“it was like white water after the start”) and unsurprisingly this led to cockpit damage. But, good, he did finish.
Poppy (Div 4) suffered slack rudder wires… very strange, since no probs going up to start and certainly no stand out reason for problem. After some time spent hunting for allen keys to take off the rudder hatch, and getting the wires correct, Popps was cold, and aborted.
Ben Phillips also rtd….. reason unknown.
Prime K2 showdown was in Div 3_4 between Jorg/Stefan (4th) and Coralie/Tom (5th).
Veracity warning: history is the account provided by the winners……
Jorg/Stefan cruised, commandingly, off the start in their super stable Herwanger Mirage. But then had to go to the side, sacrificing race position, to attend to slack rudder wires.
Problem identified to be the fact that T bar pin had come off leaving T bar loose.
A conundrum….how had the plastic nut come off the pin?
Solution….German speaking philosophy of total preparation meant that spare plastic nuts on board, and so a re-fix sorted.
Having got going again, a group of lower start K1s, eagerly attached themselves to the K2 wash (see photo above) and this group pursued Coralie/Tom. The upshot was that
notwithstanding Stefan subsequently falling in the water at a portage, the German speakers ultimately prevailed to finish ahead.
Finally, in Div 8 K2, Suzie/Bianca (Veteran Female, VF) managed to beat Caroline/Nicky (Female, F), which got me thinking about age.
