The Bridges of Essex County 2023 Summary

As the final race of the New England season, The Bridges of Essex County race attracted a robust crowd of 30 never-say-die paddlers. Inaugurated in 2021, Bill Kuklinski’s 6 mile out-and-back race on the Danvers River (a tidal estuary leading into Beverly Harbor) has in the past drawn only a modest field of locals. This year, 25 boats would compete on a fine November afternoon. Due to a low tide, the course was slightly modified from its past incarnations, eliminating a side spur into the Bass River but extending out further into the mouth of the river. Additionally, competitors were constrained to the boating channel rather than being allowed to cut corners.

The men’s single race looked to have four title contenders – Greg Lesher (winner of the inaugural Bridges race), Jerry Madore, Chris Chappell, and Eli Gallaudet. In the women’s field, Leslie Chappell looked like the paddler to beat. The doubles race was particular interesting, with 5 boats challenging. The pairing of Joel Pekosz and Chris Weaver would be tough to beat, but the strong teams of Matt Drayer & Kirk Olsen and Bernie Romanowski & Andrew Metz weren’t going to concede anything. Nine single-person outriggers would be vying for the single-blade title, with Kevin Chan the favorite going in.

Jerry and Chris broke fast off the line, but Jerry quickly took the solo lead. Greg, Eli, and Mike McDonough joined the chase. Greg pulled away from the other pursuer, passed Chris, and got by Jerry to take the lead roughly a quarter mile into the race. Jerry stayed with him for another minute before dropping off. Greg continued to separate from the chase boats, with Jerry, Chris, and Eli creating their own gap over the remaining field.

At the turn-around in the mouth of Beverly Harbor, Greg enjoyed slightly more than a minute lead over Jerry and Eli, who were in turn several lengths ahead of Chris. On the return leg, Greg would lengthen this gap to just over 2 minutes, finishing at 50:35. After battling closely for more than half the race, Eli managed to pull away from Jerry over the last couple of miles to claim second, with Jerry less than a minute back. Leslie had another strong showing to close out her season, finishing in 59:12 to claim the women’s gold, with Mary Burkitt-Gray and Kendra Lassor filling out the podium.

In the doubles race, Joel & Chris jumped to an early lead. Matt & Kirk and Bernie & Andrew held on to their draft for the first few moments, but were ultimately forced to let the faster duo head off alone. Joel & Chris lengthened their lead for the next several miles, but gave a substantial portion back after they missed a channel buoy and had to backtrack to correct the error. They still managed to take the overall race title with a time of 47:49. The second and third doubles struggled with each other the entire race, with Matt & Kirk ultimately taking silver at 48:20 – just a few lengths ahead of Bernie & Andrew. Mary Beth & Bill claimed the mixed doubles crown a few minutes later.

The outriggers had some heated battles of their own, with Kevin Chan, Fan Xie, and Tony Chen breaking away early from the OC field. Kevin finished first at 59:40, with Fan second, and Tony third. The field tightened up during the race though – only slightly more than 2 minutes separated positions 2 through 6. Agyness Liao beat Ziyao Wu to take the women’s crown.

Here are the full results:

You can find more detailed race results at SurfskiAmerica.