A cool night with barely any breeze made for some quick racing, with four tight groupings across the finish line making sure people were leaving nothing in the tank. April set off with big ambitions after post race discussions from the last couple of weeks convinced her that she was paddling well beyond the turnaround point. She hit her target and came back with a big PB (2:20) and felt great getting off the water. Next over the line was Beth holding off Chris Bates, after they both paddled the same time around 1:15 faster than last week. Next across the line was the grouping of Phil Nelson, Amanda and Geoff; Phil managed to charge past Amanda right at the end with a fast finishing Geoff on their tail, unfortunately Geoff overheated and took a desperate cooldown swim with 20 metres to go finishing floating behind his boat, Phil and Amanda were around 55 seconds faster while Geoff managed to smash his 35:00 minute target while swimming behind the boat. Phil Wadley managed to just stay in front of James with both of them scoring PB’s (9 and 5s respectively). Ken was next over the line about 10 seconds behind his best, followed by another pack with Richard holding off Michael who narrowly got past Claye, all within a boat length. Phil Barratt was next over the line in his new K1, followed by Chris Bates. We also welcomed Tony Harrington to his first race setting a handicap time for next weeks racing.
Now about that turn around point; it turns out that April had been paddling too far and needed to not go as far for her turn. This race she followed Amanda and turned at the same point, it turns out Amanda wasn’t paddling far enough. I had told Amanda to turn around the first island which when I last went up the river was the correct spot, before Amanda’s first long course a second island had formed about 100m downstream from the turn point, becoming the first island. The picture below shows the correct turn point, the left hand side arrow you can just see the stake at this low water level, this line is not recommend for fixed rudders, the right hand arrow is deeper water at the current low river level and should be clear for fixed rudders. Check out the youtube link for a video of the turn point from Wednesday night. April and Amanda you have about 200m further to paddle next week, good luck. 
Race times are below.
| Paddler | Handicap | Gun Time | Actual Time | Position | Handicap |
| April Nelson | 11:20 | 57:49 | 46:29 | 1 | 13:45 |
| Beth Wadley | 32:07 | 58:47 | 26:40 | 2 | 33:28/13:07 |
| Chris Schulz | 32:09 | 58:49 | 26:40 | 3 | 33:28/13:07 |
| Phil Nelson | 24:06 | 59:15 | 35:09 | 4 | 25:02 |
| Amanda Chong | 7:54 | 59:16 | 51:22 | 5 | 8:53 |
| Geoff MacQueen | 25:11 | 59:42 | 34:31 | 6 | 25:39 |
| Phil Wadley | 27:56 | 60:03 | 32:07 | 7 | 28:03 |
| James Caspar | 19:58 | 60:07 | 40:09 | 8 | 20:03 |
| Ken Mclean | 24:48 | 60:19 | 35:31 | 9 | 24:48 |
| Richard Pearson | 23:54 | 60:38 | 36:44 | 10 | 23:54 |
| Michael Peters | 25:57 | 60:39 | 34:42 | 11 | 25:57 |
| Claye Mace | 21:48 | 60:40 | 38:52 | 12 | 21:48 |
| Phil Barratt | 25:11 | 60:56 | 35:45 | 13 | 25:17 |
| Chris Bates | 25:13 | 61:55 | 36:42 | 14 | 24:40 |
| Jozina MacQueen | 25:01 | DNF | DNF | 25:01 | |
| Tony Harrington | 24:48 | 64:08 | 39:20 | TT | 20:52 |
Guntime for next week will be at 6:30pm. If you miss your start time you can still race, have your time recorded and score points. New paddlers will be able to set their handicap time. If you are starting more than 20 minutes after your handicap you may be asked to race a shorter course to ensure on water safety.
Check the main Hadspen page for more details, including the leader table.
