fitness paddling: exercise, train, race by kayak & canoe

Joe Glickman wrote a great report from this year race posted on the Epic Kayaks website.

A collective groan filled the grainy air at the start of the 20th annual Blackburn Challenge. Canceled? Not possible! Says who? More than 145 kayakers and five dozen rowers and outrigger paddlers had towed the line on the calm, cool Annisquam River on Cape Ann.
...
Two hours after our postponed start, the fog remained thick and the Coast Guard unrelenting. Instead of a 22-mile open ocean race we’d do a 6.5 mile out-and-back course on the Annisquam River. (Most prudent people agreed that the decision to abort the course was a wise one.)

There were only 5 entries in "kayak racing single men" class: a new Thunderbolt T-rex followed by another two Thunderbolts (with Doug Bushnell taking the 3rd place) and by two KayakPro Vampires making a debut in this race.

It seems that more and more kayak racers are switching to surfskis. The surfski class (14 entries by men and 4 by woman) was dominated by Epic V10 and Huki SX-1.

The fast touring kayak class was well represented with a typical mixture of slim kayaks dominated by WSBS EFT, Seda Glider, Epic Endurance, QCC 700x kayaks (27 men entries and 2 woman entries).

Bob Wright comments on his start in the Blackburn Challenge in the Virtual Race post. He paddled his EFT kayak.

Pam Browning answering on paddling.net my question about Vampires reported a debut of VanDusen Mohican, a cross between surf ski and sea racing kayak:

Two VanDusen Mohican skis made their debut at the Blackburn sprints, both coming in ahead of the Vampires.

It's a question as to whether the Mohican is a ski or an unlimited kayak, the initial prototype is an unlimited kayak, an open boat with a platform, rotating seat. The next two boats have the same deck & hull as the prototype, but have a bucket/pod attached to the deck & hull, which seals the bow and stern from water. Sitting in the boat, your feet are under part of the deck, so it's more of a sit-in than a sit-on. There is a suction bailer similar to canoes for draining the bucket area.

The Blackburn race organizers were not sure which class was more appropriate, they opted to place both as surfskis.

Related post: Van Dusen Mohican - Fast and Stable USCA Unlimited Racing Kayak