Round 5 - Llangollen - Cancelled

01:11:08-02:11:08

Leave your short boats at home for the Llangollen event. Your arms are going to feel like lead and your lungs will be on fire by the time you emerge from beneath Town Falls road bridge as navigating your way down Town Falls as fast and as safely as you can. If that wasn't enough you'll be racing alongside 5 other paddlers all out to beat you to the finish line.

Unfortunately we have been unable to arrange a suitable (cost effective) shuttle service for the event to bring paddlers back to the Mill site after their race. This would have allowed paddlers to park, change, warm up etc in one place. Instead of basing the event at the Mile End Mile site we are working to have the event village besides the start line next to the river. This should make things much easier to administer the event, publish results etc. However this means you'll have to park in one of the town carparks and carry you boat to the start line.

The racing starts up stream besides the children play area and after a short sprint on the flatter section to gain position you'll all converge to catch the tongue over the weir and follow the wave train down towards the falls. Quickly through the calmer stretch and a chance to nudge your opponents off line before you choose your line down the drops of the main falls. Numerous lines are possible, some are quicker than others, will your be the quickest? The final short sprint is all that lies between you and victory!

Classes

Short Boat Competition. Classification - Boats manufactured from plastic (no composite craft) under 2.6m long.
>2.6m Open Men
>2.6m Open Women

Open Competition. Classification - Boats manufactured from plastic (no composite craft) under 4.0m long.
>4.0m King of the Falls
>4.0m Queen of the Falls

Due to time restraints I am afraid there won't be time to enter both boat classes. We strongly recommend you do not share boats at this event as if you are late for your race you may face disqualification, we haven't got time to wait around for someone to bring your boat back. You are more than welcome to enter the open class in a boat shorter than 2.6m.

The Rules

1) Competitors must use the same boat for every race.

2) All competitors must be at the start line 2 mins before the published time the race is due to start. Timings are going to be very tight so any late entrants will be listed as a no show and may not progress any further in the competition.

3) The start will be an America's cup style start with all paddlers given a countdown. Times will be called at 1min, 30secs, 20sec, 10sec, 5,4,3,2,1... go! If any paddler crosses the line before the start whistle a false start will be signaled. The paddler will be warned and the countdown from 1min will begin again. If a paddler receives a second warning they will be disqualified.

4) Pushing and jostling for position is an excepted part of the event, however the following will result in immediate disqualification if witnessed by an official;
i) Intentionally hitting an opponent with your paddle.
ii) Hitting an opponents in the face with your paddle, intentional or not.
iii) Pushing any part of an opponents body

5) Boats must not have been altered in a way that would effect their safe use on the water. e.g. grabs loops, broach loops, central pillars.

6) All paddlers must wear a certificated bouyancy aid and helmet at all times whilst on the river.

Individual Ranking Sprints.

Every paddler must complete the course as quickly as possible in their competition boat. As well as a race in its own right, paddlers will be ranked by their times for the head to head races. Paddlers will set off 30 secs apart. Short boats will race first. The second sprint race will race in reverse order from the times of the first race. e.g. slowest goes first and so on.

Head to Head Boto-X.

The first 16 paddlers of each class will be seeded into the heats. Everyone else will drawn randomly into the Boto-X heats. Place anywhere in the top 3 and you'll progress into the next round.

Entry

Entry into the competition is £20. This covers all the fees to the various land owners, safety crew, Saturdays evening meal and party. If you are not a member of the BCU, WCA or SCA you will have to pay an extra £3.00 to cover insurance.

In the case of extremely low or high water the event may have to be postponed or cancelled. Due to the shorter days, time will also be against us. For these reasons we are limiting entries to 100 advance online entries. Entry closes midnight Wednesday 30th October 2008.

Click to Enter.

Timetable

Timetable. We are sharing the water with the Whitewater Racers for the weekend. Although on Saturday they will be racing up at Serpants Tail some paddlers will be coming all the way down to Town Fall as a practice run for Sundays Dee Classic race.

Saturday

• 9am - 12pm : Shared Practice with the Whitewater Racers
• 10.00am : Registration Opens
• 11.00am : Briefing
• 12.00pm : Individual Race 1
• 2.00pm : Individual Race 2, this will run in reverse order from the times of Race 1. e.g. fastest person from race one will go last.
• 4.00pm -8.00pm : Food. We have partnered with 5 restaurants and food establishments in town. You will be given a meal ticket during registration and you'll be able to exchange it in anyone of the partners.
• 8.00pm-9.00pm : Money Shot Wales, The Bridge Inn. The mighty Tom Laws will be hosting the Welsh leg of the Money Shot competition.
• 9.00pm - late : Party, The Bridge Inn. Extreme Events, famous for hosting the largest ever Freestyle party will be responsible for trying to bring the roof off The Bridge Inn.

Sunday

• 9.30am Briefing
• 10am Head to Head Heats
• 11am Head to Head Quarter Finals
• 12.30pm Head to Head Semi Finals
• 2.00pm Head to Head Finals
• 3.00pm Collect your prizes from Palm, Peak UK, Dagger, CKUK, Alpkit and Pyranha.

General River Info

Because we are no longer basing the event at the Mill site we no longer have an agreement with Whitewater Active to use their facilities. If you wish to access the river from their site you will need to sign on and pay their standard water fee. If any paddler wishes to paddle any other sections of the Dee please be aware of the Whitewater Racers, they go fast and come out of now where. If you paddle through the Mill site, Whitewater Active are happy for any paddler to paddle through the Mill section but ask you not linger in holes or playspots.