Race Day Summaries

TAUPO ENDURANCE

Taupo  |  25 July 2009

Type: Endurance

High tide: 00:00

SUMMARY

Winter Thunder in Taupo definitely lived up to its name on the weekend with crews having to battle the challenges of the cold from before the race even began. Tips for those that have never tried to prepare for a race at neg 2degrees:

- Use a credit card or similar device to scrape off ice before inflating boat
- Take buckets as the garden hose will likely be frozen solid
- Wet your valves before touching them as they may be ‘snap’ frozen
- Leave your bow line straight the night before so when it freezes solid and cannot be moved it at least can be reached by the co-pilot rather than just being stuck in position looking like some cheap David Copperfield magic trick

Once all the competitors and gear thawed everyone agreed it was a great race. The skies were clear, the lake was calm and the first crew got around the 101km course in little over an hour. All crews finished the race with less than 1min separating the first 4 teams, despite 2 of those teams covering about twice as much lake as everyone else. The winner was not just the team with the best time but also the most consistent performance on all counts. 1st place was Demon Energy black driven by the co-pilot to boot, in a photo finish 2nd went to Team Dribbler and 3rd was 02move (formally Quicken) with an impressive comeback from 5th place.

I must apologise again to Nat and Adam (checkpoint 1marshalls) for sending them to the wrong checkpoint location, they probably covered more of the lake than the competitors trying to find a place that didn’t exist. Huge thanks to all our helpers, Dribbler, Redge, Bruce, Cody and Ocky’s (get Funkd) family for coming all the way to Taupo to help make the race happen. On behalf of Ocky’s family I would like everyone to hassle him about being a bad son next time you see him. Lastly and most importantly thanks to our Race Director Pip Davidson who also came all the way from WGTN for this. She did a great job of keeping the event flowing, made quick decisions when needed and helped create a seamless event. Look forward to racing the frozen lake again next year!