Dragon Boat West

Hi everyone,

By far, this was one of the more interesting Dragon Boat Festivals in recent memory.

As Water's Edge, we care about the races and we want your feedback/suggestions. The only way we get better, is we ask you for your insights.

We ask that you not only vote, but to provide us your thoughts/suggestions/feedback.

Without them, we can't make this the best race in North America.

I think that each year there is better and better competition ... as you know the comp A finals for the open and mixed were very close ... I think that using a dock at the starting point like they did at Toronto's world club crew would help with alignment and give each team an equal chance.  When you are talking about inches in the photo finish, it might be a good idea to be more precise at the start.  I love the new format and all the competition you bring to the race in Vancouver ... thanks for all the hard work.

I'm going with Awesome!  Like i was saying in the other thread, i think this has been one of the best alcan's i've attended, and despite the occasional hiccup here and there (which are unavoidable with an event of this scale), was incredibly enjoyable and my hats off to waters edge and the festival organizers for pulling off a great show!  And of course the volunteers.

One suggestion, which may already happen and I've just been too wrapped up in my own racing to notice ... I believe last year in San Francisco (Puppy, you can probably comment on this?)  that they held a volunteers challenge.  I really like the idea of, perhaps on the Saturday after the races for the day have wrapped up, that volunteers who aren't on teams but would like to get a chance to have a "fun race" could go out on boats and some of the teams could help steer and call for them, work the docks, etc, as a volunteer recognition event.  I know on the sunday it would be too difficult to pull off because of the awards, G&G's, etc, but i bet if you asked a lot of the volunteers who were present on the weekend, they would love the chance to try it out.

Again great event, kudos to everyone involved.  I know that a lot of local paddlers had criticisms posted in another thread of the event and it was suggested more of them could get involved in the planning and implementation of the event to help... perhaps someone from the organizing committee could post up a little more information on how people can get involved, who to contact, etc etc.

The festival overall and new race grid were great.  It would be nice if there was a way to have the G&G a little bit earlier.  (Maybe start morning races earlier?)  Most of Portland Paddling had to drive home Sunday night- had to scratch the race and let another team race in their spot.  :(

Burn the Geminis!

For the most part I think the event was really well run!  Congrats to the whole Water's Edge Crew...

I know this has more to do with the nature of racing and a predetermined system for determining placings which at the top end of things worked very well and as a format I think should be kept.

Unfortunately do to some on water antics by some teams that shall remain nameless being penalized for their action and correctly so they managed to steal what should have been some novice paddler's first metal.   

To add insult to injury (in this case litterally as I understand on of these nameless boats not heeding on water officials did cause injury to a paddler on another boat) these boats once again playing stupid games with teams they should have no problem beating caused a false start.  Hardly something that would be considered sporting or fair.   

Apologies for the rant but my point is that I believe that as a sport we need to find a more appropriate way to deal with this on-water foolishness in a fashion that is more in line with creating a deterant.  End their festival, exclude them from the possibility of metaling regardless of placement, let them qualify where they should place and then put them in the consolation in that class.  I know it can be claimed that the likelihood of the novices who finished 4 5 and 6 wouldn't have lost to the teams that where in the Rec. 'D' reconciliation but at least it would have been competitive for the people who we are welcoming to the sport.

I don't know the answer but I would like to have those who we entrust with these issues think about how to more appropriately deal with these offenders without penalizing others for their misdeeds.




 I believe that teams that take part in such activities and from what I understand caused an injury to another paddler because of their desire to win at all cost should be dealt with on sunday they ended up spoiling the event for some new paddlers who should have had their first taste of hardware and a great experience to talk about walk away with a bitter taste in their mouths when in their final race after a weekend of being told that they will be racing against teams of their own caliber they get blown out of the water and that is after they once again play silly games and create a false start.

?

Anyway, only real beef I have is the lack of speakers at the back of the racer's village.  I had to constantly ask the volunteers at the Information tent to check on which races were being marshalled.  Awesome job as usual...you can tell which races are run by Water's Edge and which ones aren't.

It was hard to hear anything in lanes 6, 7, and 8 on Sunday. I don't know if the speakers weren't hooked up or turned up on the other side of the starter, but it was very quiet.

Pre-marshalling and marshalling was good. The racers village was far but there was plenty of space, but some of the speakers weren't working, couldn't hear which races were being marshalled sometimes.

It seems to me that having ample manpower is the key to making it better. (This year it seemed a bit skinny)  It might be an idea to ask attending teams to pony up to the bar and commit the services of a some of their members for some of the simple stuff ahead of time. (Help with end of day equipment cleanup/organization is a good example).  I can't see how anyone would object to that.

Overall I will go with awesome. Had a great time, thought the event was well organized. We always knew when our next race was, who we were racing against, when to marshall, etc. Food, vendors, washrooms, all good. Room for improvement, Guts and Glory was very disorganized. Our team almost missed out because we were initially told we were not going to be in it. At the last minute we were being called to the marshalling area. We literally had to get people back from the parking lot. Luckily we were able to track everyone down in time. Medal ceremonies need some work also. I prefer to see one medal ceremony after all the races are finished. Again we had to scramble to get our team together for the medal ceremony because no one seemed to know when it was going to happen. Finally, it would be nice if we were all racing in BUK's.

Note to Puppy - thanks for all your help and encouragement over the weekend. You were awesome as always! Please give CRC's thanks to Jason also. Appreciate the helps guys.

The race grid was, by far, the most bizarre I've ever seen.  In general the race organizers don't seem to be taking into account how far a few of the "mighty" teams of the past have fallen and still give them lane 4 for their first heat.

It seemed unfair to the "novice" teams to segregate them from the rest of the group after only one heat on Saturday and also unfair to the "recreational" teams to have the first placer's from the heat one taken out and given sacred status.  Because of that first heat at least one first place finisher was given better lane position for the rest of the weekend than other "recreational" teams who had consistently performed better than them.  No need to hand it on a silver platter to the competitive teams - they need to earn it just as much as the rest of the teams. 

Please find a grid and stick to it.  Teams need to be able to count on some kind of consistency in what they are paying for in a race weekend.

The race organization in general was excellent.

So, if they have a flawed grid that they're using but come across one that works MUCH better (albeit in different circumstances), you're of the opinion that they should stick with that flawed grid and not see if the other one works much better?  there is a reason we have had all these advances in society since the stone age...   WE TRIED NEW THINGS!!!  if they were an improvement, we kept them.  if they didn't work, they got junked.  ever think that that is what is going on with the race grid?  as has been said previously in the other thread, its HARD to properly rank 160+ teams properly and have everything 100% "fair" for everyone.  the grid worked well, in my opinion, better than previous years.  it definately required you to be in top form for every race, but that is what racing is about, and thats what practices are for. 
the comp teams weren't handed anything on a silver platter.  they had to fight for every race just like everyone else.  lane 4 did not always win, lanes 3 and 5 did not always come in 2nd and 3rd. 

and to sum up, i'll issue you the same challenge that has been issued before:  come up with "the perfect grid" for this many teams and hand it over to alcan for next year so that there will be no complaining. 

the grid was pretty fair in assessing the skill levels and spectrum of teams out there.  it's never going to be 100% accurate or fair since there are so many unknown factors to account for.

just to note... the novice and rec teams are not the only ones who had it tough.  if you looked at the second race for the top comp teams on saturday (especially the one with FCRCC B team), it was STACKED.  the competition was tough and the races were intense.

luck will play a factor in how you will advance on the grid, but obviously in the end it all comes down to performance and doing what needs to be done on the water.

This was my first Alcan festival, so I am only able to compare to multiple seasons worth of other festivals from year's past (Calgary, Lethbridge, Kelowna, Vancouver Taiwanese festival, etc).

Considering the amount of teams, I think this was a very well-run festival overall.  The marshalling was done efficiently and it is quite nice to see the majority of the races run on time (if not slightly ahead of schedule).  This is one of the most important items to address, IMO.  Having paddled in festivals where races ran up to two hours late I have seen how that can create havoc with making sure paddlers are ready to paddle for the next race, sufficiently, watered and rested.  I sympathize with those who were involved in the G&G races, but by the time those were going on, I had already downed a few beers, so frankly, I didn't care all that much.   :P

In this year's Alcan, having been on a boat that raced in lane 8 on several occasions, I can agree that the team in lane 8 is at a disadvantage because of the delay in hearing the starter calls and even the horn.  My knees are also bruised up a little from those rails in the Geminis.  It would be nice to have multiple sets of matched boats, but I recognize the cost and am happy that there are at least enough boats for two sets of races.  Again, better than some other festivals I've paddled in.

It might have been nice to have more speakers in the cattleyard-esque racer's tent area, but a proactive team manager/coach/paddler can simply walk down a few meters to the north side of Science World and figure out in fairly short order where the races were at.  Not a huge deal, but room for slight improvement I suppose.

Also, great job in getting the results posted quickly after the races.  It makes it much easier for team members to coordinate arrival for their next race.

Thank you, volunteers, for your time and efforts.  It was a great weekend!  Now if you could just do something about the water quality.   :lol:

I agree with Colossus. (Ya, I can't believe it either :P)  I think the grid was the best I've seen it. There was really no possibility for any team, Comp A's especially, to slack off the first day...ok, maybe the first race, but not the rest.  Letting these teams duke it out amongst themselves made for better racing all around.  Although, some race advancements may have been a little lopsided (FCRCC-A, MoDZ, Pac Reach, and Edgewater all in one Sunday morning heat) it meant that hard racing was demanded by everyone in the heat in order to make it into their intended divisions.  That's what racing should be. 

Thank you for making the festival free, and having that big screen.  Now if it could have been facing the Racer's village (or maybe a second screen?) even better.  Bleachers would have been nice along the north shore.  Racer's Village was nice and spacious, and marshalling was well timed. 
Bravo all around to the people who thought up this grid, the rankers, Water's Edge, volunteers, marshalls and racers who put up with pretty terrible weather.

One question, how were the entrants to G&G determined?  Usually it's been top 18 (all Comp A & B + top 2 Comp C), but Calgary Race was Comp D Champs.  Did they change the rules? or did other teams drop out?

bleachers!  good point grifter...  they should put some of those Indy style bleachers on the north side.  i saw spectators (and children) crawling down the rocky slopes just to catch a good view of the race.  very dangerous indeed.

another idea is perhaps they can utilitze the north side space more efficiently.  i noticed there was no place for people to eat... not all the of food stand's delicious munchies are finger foods.  there was a lot of empty space from the north side shore to the food stands.  perhaps add some picnic tables, fold chairs, tents or something so spectators can eat and watch the racing at the same time?

wait a second just how deep do we think the pockets of Alcan and it's sponsors are! What we need to do is find more sponsors or send them the alcan way so they can pay for these extras.

The big screen was a loaner from vanoc i believe

I think the festival/ races went very well. the PA system was constantly going down in racers village and the organizers did everything in their power to keep the races on time, sunday afternoon presented some unforseeable obstacles which threw a wrench in the process. Its tough to say what should be when everyone wants their stuff included.

I know g&G is great for the spectators but it isn't realistic for planning and when there are ships coming in and out of the creek that cause delay.

I suppose its a call the qualifying teams should make but does it actually affect standings in the grand scheme?

oh no!!!!  the world is coming to an end!  :shock: :lol:

The G&G qualifying rules are:

Top 8 Comp A
Top 8 Comp B
Top 1 Comp C
Top 1 Comp D

Anyone notice that on the ADBF site map there's a big box on the north shore labeled "Finish Line Viewing"? I saw that and though it they would be putting the bleachers in finally.... but as it turns out, that wasn't the case this past weekend. So was there something supposed to be there?

Great festival, Well run etc,   Unfortunate about the speakers cutting in and out in the village, but like somebody said earlier a good manager would have been on top of it.   Only complaints I had were the weather,  darn rain (still like my Alberta sunshine).  and the entry to the G&G.  After our Comp D final I went to the registrar's tent and asked if we were in, and she said no, so we packed up everything and were just heading to the beer gardens when we heard them calling for us to marshall.  Thank god for the delay, it gave us time to get our team together.  I think we proved our right to be in the race as Comp D champs given that we won the G&G in the Gemini's

We will be making some design improvements on the Beer Bong for our next festivals.  Start preparing now.   Hope to see many of you in Vernon and Calgary.

Based on your comments you believe that the organizers do not listen to what teams want, that is far from the truth.  We have had requests over the last few years from the "novice" and "recreational" teams that racing the competitive teams is not much fun.  We listened and came up with a way to move some of the more competitive teams into their own division as soon as possible.  In addition the novice teams did not want to have to race the recreational teams for a whole day and requested that they get to race each other most of the time.  That is what this grid attempts to do.  In prior years, Saturday for many teams were really practice races for the Sunday semi but not anymore.  They need to race from the start to guarantee what they believe are the fast lanes. 

As for the team you make mention of , can you elaborate more instead of being general.  It is really tough to look at something that is someone's head.

Your comment about once "mighty" teams getting a better position.  Again can you provide an example.  The ranking of teams is not done by one person but by many (see the other thread for further details).  It is based on what the team has done over the last year, particularly this year if they have raced.  In fact we had teams who said they were better than other teams and wanted the rankings to be changed because they believed it.  In the end, these teams did not even end up where the rankers had them (i.e. they did worse than the rankers thought).  My point is that what one believes is not necessarily correct and generally most teams over hype themselves, racing is the only way to clear the air and hopefully Alcan helps in this :D

The explanation of the grid has been known for months now and was discussed at the manager's meeting in the months leading up to the festival.  If your manager was not able to make it then that may be a problem (coming from Portland I can see why they were not there).

In the end, the grid has evolved over the years by listening to the DB community.  It will never make everyone happy because everyone has their own ideas and they may not match what is currently happening.  If you have some suggestions please forward to me and we will consider them, we always are looking to make it better and fair.

 Alcanranker ...........we luv you .!!!! .....you all rock !! You will never be able to please everyone...........trust me you already know ,I'm probably one of the most difficult !! ...hehe

And being on a team that ended up well down the ranks in the rec division, I thank you for that decision.  We only had to watch the back end of the eventual G&G winner during our first race.    :oops:

Oh wait, I was watching the stroke - didn't see the other teams.   :liar:

a lot of good comments submitted.  of course with such an event, there was a lack of volunteers (ie. not everything could be covered).  focus on the racing was great. on the ranking side, i haven't seen much problems.  i must double check later, but from my glance at the championship and consolations heats, they seemed to be very close. even when multiple similarly ranked boats were in the same heat on saturday, they still remained in comp level on sunday.  taken tide (outflow in morning, inflow in afternoon) and class (BuK were faster by 5% than Gemini), the times seemed to get progressively better in with each heat.

I think your team being well down in the ranks in the rec division was probably due to your paddling rather than the way the race grid was set up. If you look carefully at the first round of races, lane 4 was given to the top ranking teams coming into the festival. Every heat in the first round had a dominant team where all the other teams were watching the backs of them. Keep in mind that this is dragon boat RACING, not babying an athletic event for you just so anybody can micky mouse their way to a medal. It takes a lot of hard work and each of those top seeded teams worked their way to where they were. My team got sandwiched by two American teams in the first race and we collided too, that definitely took some time off our race, but that's the point of dragon boat racing, sh*t happens and you paddle through. Pacific Reach 1 failed to reach comp A like most thought but you don't see them bitching on the forum do you?

This is somewhere around my 7th Alcan festival and I want to say well done to Water's Edge and the organizers at ADBF for a fantastic job. This was definitely the best organized festival with a much improved race grid. Every year these groups seem to know their stuff and are actually improving the way the festival is run. Its good to see that Water's Edge will be running a few more festivals this season. It was extremely surprising to see so many out of town teams coming from California, Oregon, Washington state, Calgary, Toronto and even New York coming to our beautiful city and actually paddle in typical Vancouver training weather. Now they know what its like.

The only disappointing part was seeing how the rec teams advanced into the finals: 1 and 2 reached A final, 3 and 4 reached A consolation, 5 and 6 reached B final and 7 and 8 reached B consolation. To me, I wouldn't want to be 3,4, 7 or 8.

All I have left to say is: somebody buy some more BUKs!!!! But by then somebody will probably come up with a newer and better boat.

You need to re-read wanker's post, and possibly the rest of the thread, and re-think what you just said.  Clearly you don't get the point that he/she was trying to make.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, settle down - you misunderstand.  I was actually thanking the organizers for moving the stronger team UP!  The system worked well, from what I saw. I'm an out of town veteran paddler who was paddling on a local team with many first year paddlers and had no illusions of ending up in the upper competitive divisions. They only had six practices and counting the regatta from a couple of weeks ago, this was the second festival ever for much of the team.

The first year paddlers may not appreciate the Mickey Mouse comparisons - I'm sure you must realize that you have improved since your first season or two.   :wink:

Calgary can't complain about the entry into the G&G.  As Comp. D winners you were 9 places shy of legitimately qualifying.  The registrar was correct to say no.  I think somebody did you a favor and pulled some strings...         

calgary won the comp d division and had every right to be there.  the last two spots were for the gold medal winners for Comp C and D.  No strings pulled...it wasnt a last minute decision to include them. 

wanker and right-arm....  :shock: oh i see what you guys mean now.... can't read sarcasm sometimes, my bad i apologize  :oops:, but don't worry wanker, when FCRCC posts times like they do, all teams -comp and rec- are watching their backs so you're not alone.  :D

I wasn't complaining about being in the G&G.  We loved it, and had wanted to be in it.  We were dissappointed initially when we were told we were not in it.   It was the confusion about not being in then being called down to marshall after we had packed up.

The staff was not all in the know about who was entitled to race that race.   Not as clear as the regular race grid.

The CRC was just happy to be able to paddle in the same water as the big teams, so thanks for having us.

 :D

My suggestions:

1. Having a held start would be a great improvement.

2. For the race grid and rankings, spread out the out-of-town teams into different heats. The grid can take one surprise in a heat but two doesn't work so well. Specific example: NY and Topmade surprised in Heat 10 in the first round resulting in 4 comp-level teams in one heat instead of 2. That fed into Heat 41 in the second round where there is only supposed to be 1 or 2 comp-level teams and there were 4 (Calgary Race Club, JDA, Eye of the Dragon, and Xtreme Reach). CRC went on to Comp and the other 3 from that heat went on to sweep the medals in Rec A easily, taking the medals from the Rec teams.


Thanks for the chance to give feedback.

They are under a very strick 'no posting allowed' rule.

I'm not a member of Portland Paddling Club but I can assure you, they did not intend to get into the Novice Div !  If you were able to watch the semi-finals for part of Saturday, then you would've seen what we witnessed for about 8-10 races ... there was a spot in lanes 6-7 at about 200 meters, or so, when the current just simply turned the boat virtually parallel to the course, sending it right into the lanes to port.  Even a very skilled tiller had trouble. Some avoided colliding, others did not. Some had to stop paddling and restart.

Others who witnessed this, please post.  Most False Creek paddlers I talked with thought it was an intended error or the fault of the tiller ... they could not have seen what we saw heat-after-heat that day.  Ask the course marshalls what they saw!

So, ease up on assumptions of sand-bagging.

Keep the medals ceremony happening throughout the day ... out-of-town and/or out-of-country teams must leave immediately at end of racing to return home for Monday morning jobs. The whole team is usually unable to attend late ceremonies, meaning, they miss the joy of standing up with the rest of the crew to get their medals. It works so much better for those who must travel to stagger the awards ceremonies just as they were done this year.

Better race announcing is needed! Give the mike to a pro.
We were constantly asking which race we were watching and often no one knew at the sidelines and no one announced it, either.
Skip ALL the silly chit-chat; this is not a radio talk-show.
Racers and viewers need good, clear information.  Be professional.  
We need to know just who/when/where and time - and we need it repeated several times in case we missed the first time (did not hear, for instance).
Get the team names and lanes correct, too.  
Learn team name pronunciation before the event.
Use a script and keep a running commentary of the events ...

1. Call the race at the start line with the heat#, event and team names. Repeat all of this during the race, calling, if possible, the lead teams by name.
2.  At race conclusion, repeat what event it was, with heat #.
3.  Immediately announce, "Next up will be heat #__, event ___"
4. Read out finishers (by heat# and event) for previous heats as soon as available.  
5.  If there are lane changes, notify the announcer so he/she can call it correctly.

Burn the Geminis ... yes!

Is there really a reason to marshall 2 hours early?

Keep the photo boat farther away from the course ... wake swamping issues happened in our heat on Sunday.

Don't allow giant yachts to anchor right up near the finish line ... their boat obstructed views for honest folks on the bank watching the BCS and other finishes on Sunday afternoon.  Who was that boat, anyway?

Having given all these comments, I must add, it was a superb event and we all had a really great time. There is always room to improve. Thanks for listening!!

I didn't watch many races this past weekend but in the one's I saw, lanes 1 & 2 were the ones losing it... but I did hear of the lanes on the other side running into trouble too.

Speaking of the race commentators, the end of the science world pier (to the left of the finish line) was sorely lacking in PA speakers. IMO, this was the better place to watch races from... yet you weren't able to hear anything from the commentators there.

hrrmm, here's an idea that popped into my head... How about re-broadcasting the race commentary and marshaling announcements around the site using low power FM transmitters?? Sorta like how Canucks games inside of GM place or (on a much larger scale) the Symphony of Fire are re-broadcast so that people away from the main speakers can hear what's going on...

OK as a on water official and a coach I do have a couple of comments.

First off my crew did race in both lanes 3 and 5 on Saturday. In the first race (lane 3) my steerer did have to do a sharp correction to his right as he was drifting toward the middle of the course and into lane 4. And in the second race (lane 5) he seemed to be OK. So I don't really know if there are currents affecting the outer extremity lanes but it is something of a concern I suppose. Why else would there be so many near collisions and actual collisions? My crew's steerer has been around a long time and knows how to steers very well.

As a water official I did see a lot of near hits (and actual collisions!) and they came from both sides, lanes 1 to 3 or lanes 6 to 8. It seemed to me that there was more than the usual few near hits this year compared to years past. Again perhaps the change in the water/landscape may have something to do with that. I did not steer any of the races this year so I can not comment.

I too would encourage other steers people to address that aspect. I know some of them out there steered their fair share not for just their teams but also for other teams. I imagine they could have steered from both of the sides causing the problems.

 I too heard the comments about the steering problems in the outside lanes although we were never in any outside lane .

 The problem may be the new man made island has changed the flow of the currents and tides  .I did paddle through that area last nite in my oc1 but did not experience or feel anything that made the oc1 move around so not really sure

This year was my first time at Alcan and I would have to say it was very enjoyable.  I only wished there were more races for each team but what can you do with an even with that size?  It was awesome to watch some top tier team race and also race against them as well.  One thing about Sunday afternoon, we were warned that it was extremely hard to hear the start from lanes 6, 7 and 8 and it was in fact almost inaudible.  I don't know if that was a problem with the speaker or just being too windy but I'm sure it hindered some teams unprepared for it.

P.S.  Burn the Geminis!  :x

Could it be the buk, I remember the first few time steering in them I had a hard time. Did any of the FCRCC teams have a hard time in the outside lane? or was it all the other clubs that didn't have buk to practice in?

I steered for 5 teams in a total of 8 races this year, not including my team as I was calling.  I steered both BuKs and Geminis (and one race in a 6-16) from lanes 1,2,3,4,5, and 8.  I can't say I really noticed any difficulties maintaining a straight course down the lane for any of the races I was in.

I'm wondering if the issue had more to due with a lack of familiarity with steering the specific boat types.  If your team practices out of DragonZone, Alcan may have been their first race in a BuK.  Both the BuKs and Geminis are light boats and will turn very quickly and easily at speed.  I could easily see a steersperson who is not familiar with a given boat type getting surprised by how easily they turn.

StraightLine.

I agree with this.  Anybody used to steering Dynasty's or Six-Sixteen's would be very surprised by how quickly the lighter boats turn...especially if your first experience is under race conditions, with significant wind and current. 

From StraightLine: I'm wondering if the issue had more to due with a lack of familiarity with steering the specific boat types.

I think there's two points there ... familiarity with steering (experience) and familiarity with boat types. I've done different boats, but as a non-DZ team, the 06 /07 Regattas were the first time in Geminis and BuKs respectively. Not the friendliest of introductions, but, if it is your first time, it's not like you start at the start line and suddenly have to deal with currents, speed, and an agile keel ... you at least get a feel from having to load, back out of the dock, get out of DZ, pick up speed and perhaps even do a stop and start on the way out. There are a few opportunities to get comfortable and test the helm.

At most festivals, away teams are given opportunities to practice but, given travel schedules, it's not always possible. Given the nature of Geminis and BuKs, it might be good to ensure unfamiliar steersfolk and their teams are comfortable ... quick, early, early morning trials perhaps? Late-arrival spins? Let the team sleep and provide a token boatload of volunteer paddlers - or other steerspeople - for the steers to test drive at 6am? Wait now ... what am I thinking!?

One of the Wasabi tillers (with about a decade experience steering, including at the World Championships 4 or 5 times) had problems in Lane 6 in one heat.

She has extensive experience in BuKs (we own two) and has steered at Alcan for about the last 7 years.

She said she caught a big diagonal sideways swing about 1/3 of the way into the course.

As
I agree that a held start would be a great improvement but that would mean changing the start and finish lines around ... something they do for the Taiwanese festival but they don't for Alcan ... I think this has more to do with location and room to set up a racer's village/stage/beer garden/ etc ...

Overall I liked the race grid.  It was disappointing to come in third our first race and get relegated to the Rec Division.  As soon as we found out that we would have to fight our way back into the Comp division it allowed our team to get focused and get to work.  I think it was great!  Often it's come to a regatta on Saturday and the standing will be figured out later.  Instead every raced counted which made it that great to be apart of. 

Last year we came in second twice in our first two races in Kelowna.   We got relegated to Jade Division.  Then we won Jade Division by almost a full boat length ... it didn't seem fair to the other teams.  This allowed a team that wanted to be in Comp a chance to work themselves back into it after a very tough first race grouping. 

I hope they keep this format. 

Great Job this year. 

Official Race Results for all heats:

http://www.adbf.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=downloads.listbycat&catid=6

woohoo race results!  thanks puppy!

NP...  :lol:

brackets seemed a bit strange.  they didn't allow for my team's usual sunday morning meltdown.

the gemini's are, well, to be nice, a debacle.  i'd prefer to race in buk's or 6x16 that all weigh the same.

but overall, as usual, it was a fun race.

good job!

Since I have no other Alcan to compare this to, I thought it was great!  Our team was placed exactly where it should have been.  In fact, in the Rec A/B Semi Final, less than 4 seconds separated 1st and 8th place.

We were t-boned fairly hard in our first race, and the officials came to check on us immediately after the finish.  Nice touch.  The steersperson from the other team apologized to us in tears, and I thought they displayed some good sportsmanship.  Also, the cat who announced in the marshalling area had everyone in stitches.  One of my favorites was, "how do you like that exchange rate now??"