Hanmer’s big return
Race is back after 10 years, dedicated to late guideboat builder, racer
SARANAC LAKE — The Willard Hanmer Guideboat and Canoe race returned on Sunday after a decade of absence, in time for the historic race’s 60th anniversary.
Sue and Kathy Dyer, who organized the returning race, have been waiting for this day for a while, and they were encouraged to see such a large crowd turn out on the first-year return of the event. Dozens of racers took to the waters and hundreds lined the shoreline to cheer them on.
Kathy said so many signed up the day of the race, they ran out of numbers — the races were full. In total, 92 racers competed in 56 boats.
The paddlers strained hard, pulling on their oars to send their boats cutting through the water.
When the single guideboat races went down the Saranac River, spectators stood at every bridge and park along their path, cheering them on, ringing bells and whistling.
Some families set up picnics and young children shouted, “You can do it!”
This river race featured a 0.2-mile carry. Paddlers hefted their boats over their heads across Main Street, through a parking lot and down a hill to put back in after the dam.
At the finish line, as paddlers were exhausted but close to the end, a giant crowd gathered on the banks, shouting “Pull!” and “Finish strong!”
The races were kicked off with the firing of a miniature cannon by Chris Dyer. Though it was small in size, firing 10-guage shotgun blanks, its sound was so massive it carried through the entire town and left the ears of anyone standing nearby ringing for several minutes.
This historic cannon was lost for nearly as long as the race had been away, but was found just weeks ago. Sam Grimone, of Woods and Waters, cleaned the cannon and got it into working condition again.
–
Dedication
–
The race was dedicated to Tim Doyle, a man who was dedicated to the race. Doyle spent over three decades racing in, and helping organize the Hanmer. He died 10 years ago, after the last Hanmer race before this one.
Robin Doyle, his wife, said the race meant a lot to him. Not only was it a time for him to share in his guideboat passion with his family and community, but it was also an event that helped him beat addiction.
“He was an alcoholic and he stopped drinking, mainly because he started building guideboats and then he started racing them,” Robin said.
She said Tim took training for the Hanmer seriously, paddling miles up and down the lakes every day in preparation for weeks beforehand. He was an eight-time winner of the one man guideboat race.
Tim first got into guideboats when he decided to fix up his father’s old, run-down boat in their garage.
“A guideboat saved his life,” Sue said.
It kept him away from the bars, Robin said.
Tim raced in the last Hanmer, even though at the time he had little feeling in his arms and legs because of neuropathy. Over the years, he restored around 100 guideboats and built five, three of which were run in Sunday’s race.
Tim and Robin’s daughter Emily Doyle-Shubert, 32, competed in the guideboat races on Sunday.
Robin said the Hanmer has always been a bit of a family reunion for their family, whose extended family members drive and fly in from all around to visit and cheer.
“If you hear people yelling, that’s us,” Robin said.
She said having the Hanmer back was “bittersweet” but “wonderful.”
“It’s been missed,” she said.
Robin said Tim always told her “I’m going to be a legend some day.” Now he is, she said.
–
Racers old and young
–
In the two-man guideboat races around Lake Flower, teams got a five-second head start for every year over 100 of their combined age. Jim Frenette, 93, of Tupper Lake was racing with his son Rob Frenette and was the oldest competitor that day.
With their combined 159 years, they got a four-minute head start. Though they were up against much younger teams, when five boats came down the final stretch toward the finish line, they were right in the pack, fighting for podium placement after Curt Reynolds and Jay Dawson took first with a time of 21 minutes and 35 seconds.
The crowd was ecstatic.
The two Frenettes placed fifth, but their time of 23 minutes and 13 seconds was only off the second-place boat by eight seconds.
Rob said he and Jim couldn’t do the typical switch required in the middle of the race. Usually, one paddler goes under the legs of the other to swap sides. They had to turn the boat around and set new oars in place, which Rob said took longer than the other way and cost them a few seconds.
Still, it was the competition that brought them out, not the podium.
Lewis Hann, 5, was cheering loud for everyone, ringing a cowbell on the shore. But he got extra loud for his brother Henry, 9, who was racing in a kayak.
Tim Hesseltine, 61, placed second in the one-man guideboat race down the river. His whole family races and Hesseltine said one member holds the record for the fastest time on the course.
Hesseltine said he’s raced in the Hanmer his whole life and was glad to see it come back. Racing runs in his family.
His father, Ronnie Hesseltine, raced in the Hanmer for eight years. He spent six of those years in second place until he finally won it on his seventh try. Ronnie said he was proud of his granddaughter, who races, too.
Sue and Kathy Dyer said they’re already planning next year’s Hanmer races.