The New England Orienteering Club

22nd Annual New England Canoe-O Champs
June 27, 2010
Event Director: Aims Coney

What a great day for canoe-o!  41 people and 5 spectators made the trek to Crow Island in the Assabet River in Stow. This section of the Assabet is celebrated for its nooks and crannies, bays, narrows, and fabulous scenery, plus multiple portage options along Track Rd,, the future route of the Assabet River Rail Trail.  Several shoreline landowners generously agreed to allow control flags to be hung on their land and the courses were far more interesting as a result.

Andy Hall and his flat-water racing partner Kris Archibald were the favorites coming into the day on the Championship course.  Last year paddling a solo canoe Andy blew away all the tandems and this year he and Kris were way out front, almost 24 minutes ahead of the next boat.  2nd place as nabbed by a strong new team of Shawn Burke and Jamie Doucett.  A conundrum for everyone on the Championship course was the Mountain Top control, number 4 of 14.  It forced teams to either split up and meet at later point, such as control 5, or for one teammate to linger on the shore while the other went for the control.  Since the slowest part of canoe-o can be moving the boat, the teams with a successful split and go had a serious advantage.  Perennial favorites Seth and Steve Miller were undone by that control however, losing over 25 minutes with Seth and Steve struggled to meet up again after splitting.  A mixed team of Andy and Lisa Mykyta, paddling a race boat for the first time, did very well, capturing the mixed championship, edging Vanessa Wood and Keith Durand by four seconds.  Solo honors went to J-J Cote, who had to deal with the Mountain Top control all by himself.

The medium course wasn’t much shorter than the Championship but didn’t have the Mountain Top and didn’t have the 3K portage used by Andy and Kris, J-J and others to jump way upstream to Rock  Bottom, but was still pretty tough.  Pia and Mark Webb took overall first place and the mixed New England Championship paddling a heavy 1980 Old Town Tripper.  Terry Myers Coney, in a 27 pound 1983 Wabash Valley Meadows Special racer was first solo female, and Karl F Stephens grabbed the Men’s championship, paddling and dragging his ultra heavy plastic kayak.

For those who didn’t care to carry (or drag) their boat we had, new this year, a Clunker course where no portaging was required.  This was originally intended just for embarrassingly heavy or slow craft, but it proved more popular than any other course and several folks with nicer boats also entered.

I’d like to thank some special volunteers- Lisa and Andy Mykyta registration, Savitri Kahlsa starter, Sam Levitin finish, Scott and Phillip Turner, finish, and J-J Cote control pickup, including the Mountain Top.

And, many thanks to Jeff Leiserson and Jim Paschetto who allowed me to need the venue secret until the last minute then added the details to the weekly club email and the website.

Finally, we owe great thanks to landowners Don Rising, Linda Cornell, Curt Taska, Bob Collings, and especially Rob Albright, owner of Crow Island, without whom this would have been a very boring meet.

View the course map in the NEOC RouteGadget archive.

Team # in boat Class Boat Elapsed Time






Championship- 8.7K SL, 14 controls, 1 mandatory portage, 160M Climb
Andy Hall &Kris Archibald 2 Male Team Canoe 1:17:44 NE Champ!
Shawn Burke & Jamie Doucett 2 Male Team Canoe 1:41:26
Ian Smith & Brandon Shields 2 Male Team Canoe 1:54:33
Lisa & Andy Mykyta 2 Mixed Canoe 1:57:43 NE Champ!
Vanessa Wood & Keith Durand 2 Mixed Canoe 1:57:49
J-J Cote' 1 Male Solo Canoe 2:09:53 NE Champ!
Steven & Seth Miller 2 Male Team Canoe 2:26:42
Helen Demakes & Gary Gallagher 2 Mixed Canoe 2:34:00
Nicholas Morton 1 Male Solo Kayak 2:39:09






Medium- 6.8K SL, 10 controls, 1 mandatory portage, 15M Climb
Mark & Pia Webb 2 Mixed Canoe 1:29:20 NE Champ!
Lex & Pete Bundschuh 2 Mixed Canoe 1:47:05
Terry Myers Coney 1 Female Solo Canoe 2:08:08 NE Champ!
Savitri Khalsa 1 Female Solo Canoe 2:25:57
John & Nea Savoca 2 Mixed Canoe 2:28:42
Karl F Stephens 1 Male Solo Kayak 2:33:46 NE Champ!
Paul & Aaron Bourget 2 Male Team Canoe DNF






Clunker- 5.3K SL, 6 controls, no mandatory portages, 6 M Climb
Jeffrey Tingle 1 Male Solo Kayak 1:04:50 NE Champ!
Scott & Phil Turner 2 Male Team Canoe 1:07:43 NE Champ!
Sam Levitin 1 Male Solo Canoe 1:12:27
Kelly Guarino 1 Female Solo Kayak 1:12:33 NE Champ!
Andy McIlvane & Patty Moran 2 Mixed Canoe 1:13:34 NE Champ!
Don Hall 1 Male Solo Kayak 1:14:52
Carolyn Lister 1 Female Solo Kayak 1:50:40
Bruce & Judy Wester 2 Mixed Canoe 1:52:05
Mark & Diane Whitehead 1 Mixed 2 x Kayaks DNF-meet director error






Short- 1.9K SL, 5 controls, no mandatory portage, 2M Climb
Jonathan Rose 1 Male Solo Kayak 0:22:27 NE Champ!
Connor Tingle 1 Male Solo Kayak 0:30:17
Mark & Diane Whitehead 1 Mixed 2 x Kayaks 0:35:38 NE Champ!
Spencer Tingle 1 Male Solo Kayak Medical withdrawal






People 43



Boats 29