NY Mayor's Cup - Aborted
Sunday, 19 October 2008
In a sad turn of events, the NY authorities stopped the NY Mayor's Cup about an hour into the race. It was cold and windy and choppy - and too much for some of the competitors.When kayakers started capsizing, the Coast Guard made the call to abandon the event.
for the full report and videos, click here
2 comments:
I am sure Joe Glickman will have a better report on this event. Here is what I saw. The elite wave was to start shortly after noon. Given the last year's fast time was just over three hours. If I am on the Brooklyn side by three PM, I would see racers. To my surprise, crossing the Manhattan bridge, I didn't see a single boat. Given the race web site was not clear on how to watch this event, I thought something was up like a delay.
By the time I cycled over the starting point, the marina on the Battery park, I see every boat as if the race is over. I thought man I am so so late. How did I get so wrong?
I walked over to Joe and he says the race is over. Stacey from the US Canoe and Kayak told us what she saw. The elite wave started out and high waves forced them bunched up. Some racers got capsized and knocked others off and waves forced them close to the stationary barge. Tim Burke, a surgeon from Rhodes Island, told us what happened. He capsized when his paddle was knocked off. As he was telling us, it seemed to us it was an unusual sea condition. Many racers talked about high waves and rough water; more than 5-6 feet. I checked the tidal chart the night before, I noticed at least 2 feet higher than average and there was a southerly wind of 19 MPH. I did not think much of them since 19 MPH on the Jamaica bay can be daunting but not impossible.
Racers were in danger of getting sucked under the barge as boats were tumbling in barge wakes. Many were hanging on the tires. As some of racers did not wear PFDs, the Coast Guard could not account for number of people with number of PFDs. There were some fatalities in the past of some jet skiers who were sucked under barges, Tim mentioned.
The Coast Guard went up the river and plucked racers out. Racers waited out on the river side and were able to paddle back to the marina after a while.
There were some K1 paddlers from the US Canoe and Kayak, nice long distance K1 Nelo kayak with modified fins. It would have been great to see these paddlers finish the race but they will have to wait another year.
thanks, Chalu...we should put your report in instead of the newpaper one, and if you ok that, go ahead and replace it or add to it...
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