The race originally began in 1963 in honor of Saranac Lake guideboat builder Willard Hanmer. It ran for 50 years and was brought back by race organizers Sue and Kathy Dyer in 2022 following a 10-year hiatus.

For Jennifer Okonuk, who grew up in Saranac Lake and now lives in Owls Head, the race is about camaraderie — especially amongst the guideboaters — and community.

“It’s so great that the Dyers brought it back to Saranac Lake because we didn’t have it for years. It’s really good for the community,” Okonuk said. “It should be Willard Hanmer everyday.”

Event organizer Kathy Dyer said when she attended Saranac Lake High School, the Hanmer was a thing to do right after school ended.

Members of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Court took part in the Willard Hanmer on Sunday. From left are Saranac Lake Winter Carnival King Ricky Sullivan, Archbishop Marla McGinnis, Chamberlain Jim Sloan and Queen Liz Murray. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“This was the start of summer,” she said. “We would’ve just got out of school and everybody loved the Hanmer, and we’re trying to build it back.”

Paddlers traveled from as far as Wisconsin and Quebec to take part in this year’s event. While Kathy Dyer didn’t have all of the numbers available by press time, she said this year’s event was bigger. Last year there were 57 boats and 81 different racers that took part in the Hanmer.

Some of those participants, like Scott McKim of Brighton, have taken part in the Hanmer every year since it returned. McKim has always raced alongside his 6-year-old daughter.

“I think this is Saranac Lake at its best — the down home scene, celebrating these boats that are unique to this place and to this area,” he said. “It’s great seeing everyone out, it’s perfect weather. It’s great sense of place and community here.”

McKim said he’s really big into boats, whether it’s building or restoring them, but on Sunday he didn’t really care how the race turned out, as long as he and his family were having fun.

Young paddlers smile after completing the Willard Hanmer’s junior canoe race on Lake Flower Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“We’re pretty laid back,” he said. “I have no idea how we did overall, we’re not in it to win it. We’re just here to have a good time and I think more importantly to get to share what I love to do with my daughter.”

The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Court, which included Winter Carnival King Ricky Sullivan, Queen Liz Murray, Archbishop Marla McGinnis and Chamberlain Jim Sloan, had their own boat.

Sullivan said it was an awesome experience, especially since it was his first time taking part in the Willard Hanmer.

He said he was mostly the flag bearer, with a make-shift flag made of cardboard and a hockey stick. The flag had all of their first names on it.

The event started at Riverfront Park in Saranac Lake and finished at the Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club, along the Saranac River. It featured multiple classes, including guideboats, canoes, kayaks and stand up paddleboard races. At the finish, there was a picnic with vendors, live music and games for children.

Flat water races on Lake Flower for the men’s and women’s two-person guideboat, the mixed family guideboat, a junior guideboat, canoe and kayak and the stand up paddleboard races began earlier in the day. The down river races to the Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club started shortly after noon.

The down river race included one person guideboat, one and two canoe racing, one and two canoe pleasure, rub-a-dub pleasure, C-4 racing, one and two person kayak and war canoe.

All classes were a mass, start except for the one-person guideboat, which was a Le Mans start. The Le Mans start is when a paddler starts from the shoreline and races toward their boat on the water, before completing the course. There is a two minute interval between each participant.

When it was Saranac Lake native Gabe Woodward’s turn to compete in the one-person, he got about 20 feet before his oar snapped.

“As soon as I got into deeper water, I just really really pulled on it and I guess it snapped,” he said. “There must’ve been a crack or something where the pin comes across. But I snapped it.”

Okonuk, who was standing in the water helping to launch the guideboats, was the first person to see Woodward’s oar snap.

“I yelled ‘He broke the oar, you need to get a new one,'” she said.

Within a few minutes, Woodward had a new oar.

“That’s what happens. We’re like a family and we help each other,” Okonuk said.

Woodward said he didn’t really know the person who lent him an oar, since he had only met him at last year’s race.

“He did the two-man and he was happy to lend his oar,” he said. “They were a little bit shorter, but it’s better than no oar. It took two minutes to mess around and get a new oar, but I kind of went off at the same time as the next person behind me, so it was a little bit slower, but that’s alright.”

Okonuk was the only competitor in the women’s one-person guideboat, and a little over an hour prior to that race she competed in the two-person guideboat competition alongside Chris Dyer. She said competing in both wasn’t that tiring.

“It’s more tiring when you fall off your horse and almost break your shoulder two days before the race,” she said, while pointing to a giant bruise she had.

Okonuk, who uses a boat from around 1900, has been able to paddle a lot this year because she’s been working with the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation.

“I’ve been looking at the loons most of the season, so I’ve been taking my guideboat out quite a bit,” she said.

While John Duprey, of Saranac Lake, was the first person to cross the finish line of the men’s one-man guideboat race, it was unclear if he won his third consecutive title, as the full results and times for the Willard Hanmer were not yet available by press time Sunday.