BYO Boat Race 7/13/06

I found out about the BYO Boat race by surfing the web and following a very improbable set of links from rowing club to rowing club. This group of human powered boaters in Portland, OR, runs some very informal events at 6:30 PM on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month - at least in summer.

The only requirement to participate in the race is that you must bring your own boat and know how to handle it in a slow water river environment.

I happened to be down in the Portland area with my Cadence, so I decided to head on over to the launch point on the Willamette River to check it out.

The BYO Boat web site had some general directions for reaching the boat house. Being an out-of-towner I found the ones available through Google to be of somewhat better help.

The rush hour traffic through downtown Portland was quite slow. It took me an nearly hour to travel the 15 miles from Beaverton to the off-ramp to the boathouse in downtown Portland. The drive on surface streets was quick, though I made a wrong turn right at the last minute and had to backtrack a block.

The parking lot was nearly full. Still, I managed to find a spot close to the asphalt walkway to the riverfront trail and to the dock.


The place was located under an elevated freeway. A large chain link and barbed wire fence surrounded an acre or so of boat racks filled with all manner of rowing shells, canoes and small hand-carried boats. To the north of this fenced off area were several trailer-like temporary buildings arranged in rows parallel the river. The building closest to the street had the sign "Alder Creek Boathouse".

The instructions on the web site said one should check in at the Aldercreek Boathouse to get registered and assigned a permanent number. The clerk at the Boathouse knew almost nothing about the race, however, and recommended that I merely wait in the parking lot for other racers to arrive.

I got my boat off the roof rack and onto its dolly, preparing it for the race. Meanwhile, a number of middle aged men and women were arriving carrying paddles for dragon boat practice.

As it was a pretty warm evening with the temperature in the low 80's I decided to just wear bike shorts, bike shoes and a nylon shirt. There was not much of a breeze to keep things cool, and the sun was beating down pretty strongly even at 6 PM.


I decided to roll the Cadence over to the dock and down to the water. With the river bank quite high the ramp down to the floating portion of the dock was quite long and steep. My bike shoes barely kept their footing on the Trex pseudo-wood surface. It would be fun trying to pull the boat back up without help!

The top of the floating section of the dock was quite close to the level of the river. It appeared ideal for the launching and retrieval of a couple of 8 man shells at the same time, along with some smaller boats.

I took the Cadence off the dolly and rested it on the edge of the dock with the propeller and rudder in the water. The dolly was parked in an out of the way spot at the shoreward end of the dock.

Walking back up to the riverfront path I met a couple of folks outfitted more for kayaking than dragon boating. We introduced ourselves to each other, but I am sad to say I can't recall their names. Sorry!

Yes, they were there for the BYO Boat race. No, there was no formal registration other than to sign a release form carried by a gentleman who rode there on a bike and was waiting for us at the next dock down the river. He was also the timer for the race.

I went back down to the water, launched the Cadence and pedaled down to the next dock. Boy, it had been nearly a month since I last was on the water!

The river was hardly moving here. The water was quite murky and not something I felt comfortable putting my hands in to use to cool off. Hmmm, this might be a problem during the race!

I greeted the race timer and pulled alongside him at the dock. He handed me the registration form, which was very similar to the one used by the Sound Rowers for their races.

There was no entry fee, nor would there be any awards. However, the times would be posted on the byoboat.com web site. What more could you want?

Several other boats arrived and were going through warmups. These included two men in a canoe, a woman on an OC-1, a guy on a surfski and two women in sea kayaks.

I was told that Rick was the name of the surly-looking guy in the surfski, and that he always wins. Ok, now I knew who the competition was!

We lined up, ready to go. The timer gave us the "Go!" signal, and off we went up the river towards OMSI and the submarine moored along the shoreline.

As I had not been on this river before and the fact that it looked a bit different from the water than I pictured it from the aerial photo, I decided it would be a good idea to keep as close to Rick as possible. Yes, as had been predicted, he quickly moved out in front of the other racers.

Within a few moments - and a bit of hard pedaling - I was on his tail.

I don't think he was expecting this, but he said nothing as he paddled over the murky water.

Fluffy white feathery stuff was floating on the surface of the water as well as in the air. The scene reminded me of the stagnant duck ponds in the parks of the Midwest where many years ago I rowed some ultra heavy rowboats in the summer heat. The air was not the crisp, clean air I was used to in the Sound Rowers races; instead, it was the oppressive, thick and somewhat polluted air of the center of a major city on a warm summer evening.

I was getting quite hot, and keeping up with Rick was starting to get hard in this environment.

We made our way together past the tip of Ross Island, passing a boat ramp where a couple of people were wading into the water. Apparently they didn't mind the color.

Ahead I could see what looked like another branch of the river, but apparently it was the lagoon that had been mentioned in the race course description. Ok, then that structure ahead on the left must be the place where we turn around.

My lungs were not happy. My head wasn't happy, either. The only cooling I had was that of my passage through the still air. So, rather than get sick from overheating I decided to let up slightly, falling slowly behind Rick as we approached the turn.

Rick made the turn in the clockwise direction, and a few seconds later I made the turn in the counterclockwise direction.

Heading back down the river there was ever so slightly more breeze. I kept up a fairly good pace, though definitely not as fast as on the first half. I cheered on the others in the race as I passed by.

I came upon a couple of the dragon boats doing short sprints. Hey - maybe I could catch a ride behind one of them! Unfortunately, however, they were taking a long rest break when I caught up to them, and then they headed off in another direction.

Eventually the OMSI submarine appeared, near which a paddlewheeled riverboat cruiser was docked. The race was almost over!

Breathing hard and sprinting to the finish line I completed the course in 31:42, about 2 minutes behind Rick.

It appeared that Rick was still recovering from the effort. He still appeared to be breathing hard. The race timer asked me how it went. "Are you tired, Mike?"

"No", I said. "I'm overheated, not tired", and pedaled back along the course to escort the other racers one by one to the finish line.

As luck would have it a nice breeze started to blow, becoming fairly strong. Ahhh! This was much better. If only it happened earlier!

I made my way back to the dock. The guys in the double canoe each tried out the Cadence, and had fun pedaling it in the stiff breeze. Who knows? Maybe they might one day switch from paddles to pedals.

With some help from one of the women paddlers I was able to wheel the boat up the ramp with no problems. Thanks a bunch!

Thank you, BYO Boaters, for putting on the race!

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The complete race results can be found at this site.

(Photos were taken with my cell phone camera)