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If you remember, I was in a big kayak race a few months ago and did quite well. I just got back from a long weekend in Louisville KY on the Ohio river. I was in another kayak racing event called "Riverthon". It was three races - a 7 mile SUP race, a 22 mile kayak race and their main event, a 50 mile kayak race with a portage (where you have to carry your boat across land to get around a dam) that was about in the middle of the race.

I entered the 50 mile race which started in the dark and fog at 6:00 am yesterday morning. 9 hours and 1 minute later I crossed the finish line in first place! It was my first win since I got my surfski a little over a year ago. There were 16 boats in the race and all were serious racers in fast boats - even a couple of tandems. Second place went to my paddling buddy Ryan who tied with me in the Missouri race this summer - he came in 4-1/2 minutes behind me. Third went to a local guy about 5 minutes after that. I think the last boat to finish made it in about 11 hours.

There was also a raffle tied in with the race finishers. The first six boats in the 50 mile race each got two raffle tickets. The first six boats in the 22 mile each got one ticket. There were several small prizes but the big ones were a carbon fiber wing paddle and an really nice 16' kayak. I won the paddle and Ryan won the kayak.

All in all a really nice 'feel good' weekend.

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Congratulations on the win, and hurray for the raffle icing on the cake!

Lizbit says it's not shameless bragging when you prove you're the top dog.

Yay, Jaybee!!!

Well done!

Congratulations!

Congratulations, jaybee! I'm very impressed! I hope you got to see a few of the sights of my former hometown and enjoy some of the attractions..

There are more details and photos here. (So that's what jaybee stands for!)
https://www.facebook.com/Riverthon

Did you have any confrontations with massive strings of barges and towboats? My dad used to design and build those at the Jeffboat shipyard in Indiana that's directly across from the boathouse where you had the awards ceremony.

I had no idea what speed is sustainable by a good kayaker, but my research suggests that 3 to 4 miles an hour is pretty good. Do you know what the average current speed was? From what I can tell, it varies a lot, but under current conditions, it was probably 1 mile/hour or less. I think my dad used to use a rule of thumb of 2 mph on the Ohio and 4 mph on the Mississippi, but that may have been more of a worst case for towboat engine sizing.

I don't know if you paid attention, but they are currently in the middle of building two new bridges over the Ohio in Louisville, the first new ones since the early 1960s, so that's a pretty big deal.

Congratulations! --Bob

TheConfessor wrote:Congratulations, jaybee! I'm very impressed! I hope you got to see a few of the sights of my former hometown and enjoy some of the attractions..

There are more details and photos here. (So that's what jaybee stands for!)
https://www.facebook.com/Riverthon

Did you have any confrontations with massive strings of barges and towboats? My dad used to design and build those at the Jeffboat shipyard in Indiana that's directly across from the boathouse where you had the awards ceremony.

I had no idea what speed is sustainable by a good kayaker, but my research suggests that 3 to 4 miles an hour is pretty good. Do you know what the average current speed was? From what I can tell, it varies a lot, but under current conditions, it was probably 1 mile/hour or less. I think my dad used to use a rule of thumb of 2 mph on the Ohio and 4 mph on the Mississippi, but that may have been more of a worst case for towboat engine sizing.

I don't know if you paid attention, but they are currently in the middle of building two new bridges over the Ohio in Louisville, the first new ones since the early 1960s, so that's a pretty big deal.

Thanks Ed and all, I didn't know that anyone was from the Louisville area. Daylight hit and the fog lifted at Twelve Mile Island - just upstream of the first new bridge. It's not very far along, the two main piers are just taking shape. The second bridge right in downtown is almost done. In fact, I passed by the barge and crane that was holding the last span section that is to be installed. The crane was running and the cable was tightening as I passed by but I never saw it lift. The downtown riverfront area is a mix of parklike spaces and barges. I can safely say that I saw more barges and towboats on Saturday than I have in my entire time kayaking. The Ohio river is a very busy barge area. When you are in a kayak with 3" of freeboard the wake from a barge can seem fairly huge.

You are correct that 3 to 4 mph is a pretty average kayak speed. But most kayaks are about 10' to 12' long, 30" wide and weigh 50 to 60 pounds. The boat in my avatar is 18' long, 21" wide and weighs only 35 pounds. As kayaks go, it's pretty fast. I can cruse continuously in flat water at 5 mph and for this race stayed at a 5.4 to 5.5 mph flatwater pace. Current upstream of the dam was 0.3 mph on Saturday. Faster just below the Falls of the Ohio for a mile or two but dropped back down to about 0.5 mph below the bridge by New Albany. So for this race I averaged about 5.75 mph.

I didn't get to see too many other sights other than the view from the river but it was a pretty run. And even though I was really tired after the race, I actually was awake when they took my picture!

Congratulations.

I'm surprised you can still move around after that.

Awesome!

Congratulations!