Trip Report – Raisin River Canoe Race 2015

The Raisin River Canoe race is an annual event that takes place in high water (April). It spans 30km from St. Andrews to Williamstown and has a few rapids (which can be portaged) . It is a staggered start with the objective to be the fastest boat to complete the trip. Various categories are available with canoes and kayaks, singles and doubles.

For this trip we had 2 canoes but no aspirations to win seeing as we were using a 16ft and 17ft prospector in royalex. Our canoes are best for expeditions in whitewater not for speed!

In any case, our 16ft canoe was #62 with myself up front and Burger in the back. We were prepared for a bit more current and whitewater so we had helmets on which frankly was not really necessary. Burger had run the race the previous year and the water level was higher so my excuse is that it was my first time on this river but he was just lost :D.

Since there were 4 crafts per wave, Seb and Gibe were using the 17ft canoe (#65) and were on the wave right after us. Our objective was to finish ahead of them and theirs was to pass us. We kept visual contact for most of the race until the later stages. We only stopped a few times briefly for water and sunscreen but despite that, I got the worst sunburn on my face, likely reflection from the water and wearing a helmet instead of a hat.

We filmed the race with a gopro mounted on Burger’s helmet and you can hear us talking and discussing strategy while passing some other participants. Burger even managed to slow down a kayak that passed us commenting that his camera was not pointed correctly :D. Unfortunately the camera’s battery died after about 2h30mins while our finishing time was 3h49 minutes. That was good enough for 8th in the 17ft open and 40th overall. Seb and Gibe managed to finish in 3h52 minutes and placed 16th in the men’s rec and 42nd overall. (We’re not sure why/how we registered for 2 different categories).

Anyways, it was an enjoyable race and we keep it on our calendars since although it hasn’t yet worked out with our schedules.