“Botany Bounty” - about the Event
(10/7/11) - by Steve Newsome

We had hoped for a sunny day so that we could show Botany Bay at its best to paddlers and launch the newest club on the South Side.  Instead of rain we got wind and wow it was strong!  When you got out of the wind it was quite nice.
 
Southern Districts Ocean Paddlers were proud to bring the “Botany Bounty” to you all.  What a huge success to see 70 paddlers do battle on a sunny but very windy day.  It was also great to see so many great new junior paddlers joining us in the Harbour Series Iceberg series and I hope that you continue to enjoy the fun of the Harbour Series races next year.  Remember there are still 2 more great races to come in the Iceberg Series, Toronto and Sydney Harbour. 
 

Save www.harbourracing.org.au to your favourites and you won’t lose track of what is going on. 
 
Congratulations also to the SUP paddlers on completing the course and pushing back into that head wind as you came back around the break wall at Dolls Point.  From all accounts you had a good battle.  We do apologise for the mix up with the short course buoy and support boat.  The IRB was sitting on the can waiting for you but were called to assist a paddler requiring assistance.  By the time they came back many of you may have already gone past the point.  We are really sorry for that.  We will use a different coloured can for all major turns in future.  That will make it easier for all concerned.

We saw some great times recorded for the 15km yesterday with Tom Atkinson winning with a time of 1hr 16 mins, it was also great to see Clint and Grant on the OC2 give a lot of paddlers a shock when they finished in 1hr 20 mins. 
 
A special thank you to the sponsors of the series, Epic Kayaks, Bing Lee, LG, Prokayaks, Garmin and Unleash Compression – thank you for the wonderful prizes that you donated.  Also thank you to our local south side businesses, Eastern Bloc Trainer, One Stop Promotions, Zillaco Sports Apparel and Lunarsea Sports.
 
I would also like to thank the IRB and lead boat crews who volunteered their time yesterday to support us all.  Their support was invaluable and as an organiser anyone who volunteers their own time is worth their weight in gold!  A huge thank you should also be made to the committee of Southern Districts Ocean Paddlers who assisted in making the day so much smoother for you all.
 
We will be posting some photos and video in the next few days that we have of many of you.  Thank you for coming down and joining us and we look forward to bringing you another race on Botany Bay again soon.
 
Steve Newsome
Race Director, SDOP