Round Lamma Race

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Round Lamma Race

WORDS: BILL CHALMERS

he annual Round Lamma Race was held on 23 October under grey skies, cool temperatures, and variable winds. RHKYC entered seven OC6 crews in the Men’s Standard (three crews) and Unlimited (one), and in Women’s Unlimited (two) and Mixed Unlimited (one) categories and turned in a number of strong results.

Fastest OC6 on the day was the Club’s own Unlimited crew (John McLennan, Julien Stump, Ryan Lopes, Dave Smith, Brian Henderson, Hamish McNicol), burning up the 23.16 km course in 1:48:27, besting their long-standing VRC rivals! Well done, lads!

The fastest men’s crew in OC6 Standard set a new course record for that class by finishing in 2:00:58 (Inigo Arrotegui, Zach Tuckwell, Alex De Miranda, Tom Armistead, Daniele Ferraretto, Doug Woodring). Putting in a performance for the ages, their time was about ten minutes faster than the previous Standard course record!

The two other YC crews finished fourth (2:15:46 – Pietro Scognamiglio, Chris Tickle, Henrik Toernell, Eldar Gainutdinov, Jess Knebel, Stuart Carroll), and fifth (2:18:14 – Phillip Chou, Victor Zhang, Stephen Alley, Tony Adams, Arvind Rajan, Duncan Smith) turning in respectable results for crews with many first-time Lamma racers.

Yacht Club Women’s Unlimited crews dominated their five-boat class, finishing first (2:12:29 – Sarah Wilson, Elena Kucherenko, Stephanie Tovoli, Christina “Parky” Park, Amy De Vera, Rae Strachan) and second (2:16:07 – Erin Juhl, Julie Miller, Martina Redaelli, Emma Gould, Jill Carroll, Melissa Davis), with both YC crews more than 10 minutes ahead of the next fastest boat in their class.

Steering in the Mixed Unlimited (2:21:23 – Yverain Olivares, Tatiana Filippova, Steve Taylor, Nicky Lopes, Clare Baldwin, Bill Chalmers) I had my first real taste of boat contact about 100 meters off the start line, as the VRC mixed boat exchanged a bit of paint with us and caused us to veer off course to recover. We were able to return the favor shortly thereafter as, rather than get squeezed into the rocky shore, we held our line and made contact with them again and turned them towards the rocks. We let up so as not to run their new OC6 onto the rocks and pried ourselves free. After we had completed our introductions, however, the VRC crew pulled away and beat us convincingly.

As a first-timer at the Lamma race, the presence and comradery of so many experienced YC paddlers helped allay any pre-race jitters and allowed me to focus on the race and feel a part of a YC team that has a strong core group of skilled leaders who take a genuine interest in the team’s paddlers at all levels. There is something special happening here, folks. Hut!