Chattajack 2024 3-Heat Start

You are so close!!! Make sure you know where to be and when. It'll make the whole race better.

For those of you not on Facebook, this was posted to the Chattajack Facebook page:

The 2024 Chattajack race will consist of a 3-Heat Start.

As the Chattajack OC-6 division has grown we’re making an adjustment to make everyone’s race experience as close to perfect as possible. We need everyone to read carefully so they know what to do and when to do it. It’s important to be familiar with the plan’s “flow of events” in case of fog race morning.

CJ 3 Heats:

• Heat 1: SUPS & Prone, Kayaks (anything 20” wide or more), C-1, C-2, and C-4
• Heat 2: OC-6s
• Heat 3: Surf Skis, Tandem Surfskis, OC-1s, OC-2s, OC-3s

FLOW of events:

Race day morning (October 26) will begin just as it has many years before. We’ll gather at Ross’s Landing, have a pre-race safety briefing (7:30 AM) followed by our National Anthem, then Heat 1’s participants will immediately be ushered towards the 2 floating docks (Heat 1 operates exactly the same as previous years).

As the quantity of Heat 1 participants entering the 2 docks gangways diminishes, a Chattajack official will begin diverting remaining Heat 1 participants to 1 floating dock. This will allow the OC-6s to begin using the second floating dock. (We did this same thing in 2023).

Attention OC-6 crews!!

As Soon As You Come Off The Floating Docks, paddle your OC-6 directly across the breadth of the river to the far side (look at the illustrations on this post). Promptly paddling across the river ensures your OC-6 vessel will not obstruct the path of Heat 1’s racers. Once your OC-6 has crossed the river please begin paddling up river to where you will stage upstream from Heat 1’s staging zone (see image). If your OC-6 is flanking Maclellan Island, congrats, you have completed your staging mission.

Heat 1

Heat 1 will finalize alignment beneath the Walnut St. Bridge just as in previous years, the race directors boat will lead the “DRIFT ALIGNMENT” towards the Market Street bridge executing the Heat 1 start with shotgun blast.

OC-6s, once you hear Heat 1’s shotgun start, please drift into the primary staging area but Do Not Go Beyond Walnut St. Bridge. Remain upstream of Walnut Street bridge, wait for the race director's vessel to return to your staging area (Walnut Street Bridge) to commence alignment and begin Heat 2’s drift alignment & shotgun start.

Heat 3

Your group will operate exactly as it has in years past, the only difference is the OC-6s are no longer starting within your heat. Simply wait at basecamp for the OC-6s to pass basecamp then make your way to stage for Heat 3’s race start above Walnut St. Bridge.

FOG

Please familiarize yourselves with this 3-Heat action plan. Fog on race morning is always a very real factor. Fog creates huge challenges with communication so the more everyone understands this plan the better.

Footnote for the curious:

Why “Drift Alignment” exists at Chattajack?

The vast majority of the vessels competing in Chattajack have a rudder or fin near their stern making it difficult/impossible for a vessel to maintain a static position in the river while pointing downstream (The river current physics will naturally pull the stern fin to one side or the other causing your vessel to complete a 180 degree turn ending with the vessel pointing upstream). To avoid the headaches of staging vessels jack-knifing, bumping into one another, etc., the simple solution is for staged participants to keep their bow pointing upstream while awaiting the announcement of “drift alignment” to begin. Once drift alignment has begun, the race director's boat will begin to drift downstream with the river current. Racers float downstream queuing themselves in the starting line-up where they choose to be, while paying close attention to not allow their vessel to pass in front of the race directors boat for the gun start. Participant vessels in front of the director’s boat at the time of the gun start will receive 15 minutes added to their finishing time.

Chattajack Rookies/Maiden CJ Voyagers

If you've never raced Chattajack before and this seems overwhelming or hard to visualize (it's pretty insane we agree!), no worries, you’re gonna be just fine!! Just get to the Chattajack base camp on Friday with plenty of time to not be rushed and ask a Chattajack veteran to explain what to expect and how these new changes will probably look, we'll also have some banners illustrating/depicting the 3-heat start.

Chattajack's website will be updated w/ these details shortly - y'all just got the first glimpse

This information was accurate as of October 19, 2024. Check out the Chattajack Facebook page here for updates

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