Dan Rabinkin puts on a very nice canoe race each year on the Nashua River in Groton. The Nashua is a beautiful river that has been cleaned up since the 1960's when it ran different colors from dyes used in factories in Fitchburg. This year the weather was sunny and hot, but with a nice cooling breeze, so it was a lot nicer than I thought it might be. Several skiers took part in this affair, including Michael Melnikov in a surf ski, Wes Denering and I in C1 racing canoes and Aims Coney in a racing sea kayak. I had a blast, settling in after the start in 8th place of 13 C1s, right behind Wes (I still need to go out easy in these affairs to make sure I don't take an impromptu swim), but saw an opening at the first bouy turn a few hundred yards into the course to sneak by Wes on the inside as we struggled to get our boats to turn (18' single canoes do not turn easily!). I was eventually able to get up to 2 other C1s and the 3 of us paddled the next 7-8 miles together, either bow to stern, drafting, or side by side, riding each other's wakes, soooo much better than being out there by yourself. Wes struggled to hang with Bill Farrell and another boat. On the last stretch the 2 boats I was with blew me off and put 45sec to a minute on me as I faded to 7th place in 1:41:46 and Wes in 1:51:41. Meanwhile, up near the front the fast kayaks were cranking along, Michael in the mix to claim 4th in 1:28:37. Aims, still learning about how his boat handles opted for the shorter 4 mile race, taking first place in 0:37:13.
Other Westontuesday night skiers had excellent days, including Carina Peritore, paddling a C2 racing canoe in the mixed division and taking first in 1:34:35, while Seth Miller also paddling a mixed C2 took 2nd place in 1:35:01.
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