The Vermont Paddlers Club

In it's 6th year the New Haven Ledges Race has come into it's own. Folks around New England know about it, Boaters from north of the boarder come down to race it. Sponsors want to be involved and overall it is a really great fun event.

This year may have been the best one we have had yet. We initially had scheduled it for the first Saturday in April only to have to bump it back a weekend to let the ice break loose from the river. Our timing was as good as it gets. The river had come up high the week before and cleared the ice and we had nice high flows the day before the race and then it came back down to a reasonable flow that met the needs of racers of all abilities.

We had 42 racers in all. 6 of them raced in both the Long boat and Creek Boat categories. A large percentage of the field of racers were from Quebec. VT brought the usual strong contingency of local boaters, but ultimately it was a racer from the past that showed up this year to turn the heat on and win the overall Creek Boat and Long Boat categories. Tino Specht topped past winners, Gilbert, Pritchard and Brown taking home the Lion's share of the prizes. The best part of this was that it seemed as though no one really cared about the prizes, because the prize was that everyone was out on a sunny 70 degree April day at the Ledges running laps and there just happened to be a ramp and finishline for folks to collect their times.

The New Haven Race - laid back grass roots VT event. Pure fun - the way boating in Vermont should be.

Not to forget - our volunteers were huge this year, Brock drove shuttle, John - brought the ramp and directed traffic, Chris was a multipurpose guy all over the place, Paul assisted with the finish Danica kept time and crunched numbers for us, Andrew took photos and worked safety, Alex did the same, Will was the race day logistics man - safety, time keeping and really making sure our gears were turning as the should. Nick put in a ton of pre-race time helping to secure sponsorship and pre race logistics. So a huge thanks to all that helped out in some way or another.

Also - Thanks to our sponsors. Many companies provided prizes and most importantly the Vermont Paddlers Club for their continued support financially and with Volunteers.

The New Haven Ledges Race - Just another excuse to spend a day on one of the best stretches of Whitewater in the Northeast!