The return of the Howe Sound Outrigger Race to Gibsons was a resounding success this year, drawing teams from across Western Canada and the United States for the 27.2-kilometre Iron race.
This year's course saw teams start from just outside Gibsons Harbour on Saturday morning, track around Gower Point and into the choppy Strait of Georgia as far as Camp Byng before turning back.
The women's Iron race was taken by False Creek Racing Canoe Club (FCRCC) team I in a time of 2:30:32. FCRCC team II followed in about eight minutes later.
"We were really happy to be able to get first and second in a regatta," said captain Kamini Jain. "It was good. A lot of us have paddled together for along time, so we are a pretty clean crew. We just got up ahead and stayed ahead."
Three of the paddlers on the winning team were members of Team Canada's seven-medal winning team at the World Sprints in New Caledonia.
Jain said those wins and the training it took to get them likely gave her team an edge.
"It means we train bloody hard through the winter, whereas most people around here take a bit of a break because it's so cold. We have a lot of fitness," she said.
The men's Iron race was taken by another FCRCC team 1 with a time of 2:12:15, and the second place finishers, Sand Sail Point team I from Seattle, came in shortly after with a time of 2:16:06.
"They had a smokin' team on paper and we had a real strong team too, but I expected it to be a bit closer than it was," said team representative Bob Stewart. "We had a pretty good downwind leg, and I think that's where we actually won the race. It put a pretty big gap between us and the second team."
Locally, Spirit of Aloha Racing (SOAR) had good showings in several races.
The SOAR novice boat, crewed by Brenda Webb, Dayton Skei, Selina Williams, Birgit Breuer, Bill Drinkwater and Ken Peterson, and elders Tammy Hartman, Merrily Corder, Ron Dickinson, Manfred Hartman, Sonya Bergen and Greg Smith, both raced in the 14-km short course around Keats Island.
The novices proved to be the stronger team, winning the novice class and finishing second overall with a time of 1:20:58. The elders finished second in their class and fourth overall, with a time of 1:23:14.
In Sunday's 10-km small boat races, Smith and Dickinson won the Open Men's OC-2 class and finished fifth overall in a field of 50 boats with a time of 54:52. Hartman finished in sixth place in the Senior Master OC-1 class with a time of 1:01:38.
Race director Donna Harrison said this year's event got rave reviews from racers who liked the new course, the level of competition and the overall support from the community including the Town of Gibsons, local businesses and the Gibsons Rotary Club.
The highlight, though, Harrison said, was when the teams put the competition aside and hoisted a hard-earned beer at Gramma's Pub to celebrate an event that local paddlers take seriously.
"The bar was packed with outrigger paddlers and there was a few people in there to watch the football game saying 'does anyone know that it's in overtime now?' Nobody cared. It was all about outriggers and we were just all packed in there having a good time," Harrison said.
