The winners of the tandem canoe division of the Texas Water Safari chalked up another win over the weekend.
Bob Vincent of Dorchester, Ontario, and John Bugge of Luling, Texas, won the fourth annual Yukon 360 on Sunday. Vincent has also twice won divisions in the Yukon River Quest.
The team, called Old Dogs, completed the 137-kilometre race on the Nisutlin River from Saturday to Sunday in 21 hours, eight minutes and 30 seconds.
Just under 42 minutes back was the top Yukon finisher, Tim Hodgson, winning the solo canoe division.
“It was a small but competitive race,” said Hodgson. “I was with (Old Dogs) for the first part of the race and then they pulled away. While I could hang with them, it was a lot of fun.”
Hodgson, a former national team paddler, finished third in the 2010 Yukon 360 for his previous best finish.
Third in was the Whitehorse team of Gillian Farnell and Jeremy Staveley in a tandem canoe, posting a time of 22:39:00.
Cruising into fourth place overall was a pair of cardiac doctors from Bristol, England. Mark Turner and Mark Hamilton completed the race in 23:16:00 in a tandem kayak, raising money for British heart disease charity.
Rounding out the field was Dennis Fosseneuve from Sudbury, Ontario. Fosseneuve, who was in a solo kayak, scratched from the race after encountering some navigational difficulties, taking a wrong turn down Eagle Bay.
“That’s the problem with racing solo,” said Hodgson. “If you decide to go for speed and ignore your maps, that’s what happens… It’s just bad luck. It could happen to anybody.”
Fosseneuve and Hodgson were members of the course-record-setting voyageur team in the 2010 Yukon River Quest.
The weekend’s race marked the shortest edition of the Yukon 360, which takes place on a different river each year. Though not set in stone, 360 organizers are considering holding the 2013 race on the McQuesten River.
The final Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club event of the season will be the 11-kilometre Autumn Classic on the McClintock River on September 29. More information can be found at www.yckc.ca.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
