List Categories of Archived Results

Charles River Canoe-Orienteering Event, Auburndale, MA
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Event Director: Ian Smith

Canoe orienteering races happen infrequently in New England, and they tend to be less accessible to a casual participant because most sites are remote and do not have on-site canoe rentals.  It had been some time since we last used the Newton facility - which has Charles River Canoe and Kayak on the map, so I elected to set the second Canoe-O race of the season at that location.

The Score-O format is more interesting for canoe orienteering than for foot orienteering because there are many more possible paths of similar difficulty.  I had never set a canoe course before, and score-O has the benefit of forcing people to think about what order to take the controls and of allowing individuals to choose a course of a length suited to their interests without fear of DNFing.  I decided to have two classes - anyone who chose to visit ten or fewer controls would be in the "short" class, and up to 20 would be the "long."  This partition set a shorter, attainable objective, and the short course was a popular option.  I set a long (14-15 km) challenging course.  One of the major challenges was finding an optimal way through thick water chestnuts and lilypads; I think this would have been more appropriate if they map had included all the vegetation in detail.  As it was, several competitors battled through a few gratuitously difficult legs.  The map is likely better suited to an earlier race - in late May or early June, when the vegetation isn't so mature.

A total of 24 people made it out for the competition.  I think with some effort advertising the event at Charles River Canoe and Kayak (which I did not invest), the turnout could be much higher.  Many thanks to Pete Lane who showed up unsolicited to help out with the event and picked up 14 controls; it would have been challenging to have managed the event efficiently without his assistance.