The Council Room

[DavidAyars]

Sunday morning. And if you were a Blue, what better way to celebrate the Lord's day and give honor and blessing to the period between the Sunday service and the best meal of the week than to slaughter the Grays in a WAR CANOE RACE!!!

War Canoe would get started halfway through Sunday breakfast, as I remember-- and as always, some of these memories are dimmer than others, so feel free to offer corrections or additions or more specific anecdotes. The color guard leaders would come around the dining room tables and try to recruit suckers, I mean, enthusiastic paddlers to do battle for color and section. It was the Junior Grays vs. the Junior Blues, followed by the Senior Grays vs. the Senior Blues.

As a camper having the upper body strength of Pee Wee Herman, I would not have been my own prime candidate for crewing a war canoe, but I made up for it with three other attributes that often got me selected anyway. I was little so I didn't weigh the boat down much, and I'd give it my all and create lots of powerful whirlpools in the water as I jammed my paddle full-force (which looked cool and gave the false impression of strength, anyway), and maybe most importantly, I was a warm body that would show up down at the wharf if picked.

No-shows, or just not enough people to crew the boat, were a problem for color guard leaders. They'd have to reserve seats on the War Canoe like United Airlines: overbook, and then bump, to be sure the canoe launched full. There was nothing worse than standing down at the dock five paddlers short of a crew and be yelling up the hill or sending two teammates running and burning up vital paddling energy to try and recruit more warm bodies. People really would yell, though, in desperation and unwillingness to run back up and down the hill. Say six Junior Grays showed up. They'd stand on the dock by the Buddy Board, cup their hands around their mouths, and yell in unison, "Junior Grays! Get down here!!" Did that ever work? No, of course not. Voices didn't carry clearly, and even if they did, can you imagine Grays lying on their beds in the Junior camp, hearing the yell, and feeling enough obligation or remorse to run down the hill to pitch in?

Now that I think about it, the smarter way to organize it would have been to get the group together in the section and then go down the hill together so you knew you had enough people, but I don't think we ever figured that out.

I don't recall how far the races ran. Not far, though. I think it only took a few minutes to run the race. Juniors would easily paddle out a ways (and seniors a ways farther, when it was their turn)-- maybe no farther than Lands End, do a 180 with one side paddling forwards while the other side paddled backwards to flip the canoes, and at a GO! signal from a guy in the motorboat, race back towards Carry Beach, with the Junior wharf tower as the finish line.

Just like regular crew, most races were effectively over early. Less-than-one-length-victory races and comebacks happened, but were rare. I don't remember there being any prize or trophy, but Mr. Bentley would always announce the results of the races at Sunday Dinner (the noon meal) to enthusiastic cheers from half the camp. Inclement weather would cancel the races, but they were generally run six to eight times a summer.

As I recall, the canoes were stored upside down on the hill just above the wharf. And at the start of camp, they'd be upside down near the Camp Store. Color guard leaders would ask all Senior Whatevers to take the boats down before the first race, and bring them back up again after the last one. During the winter, the canoes were in the Jr-Sr Dining Room. Freddie would slap yet another coat of gray or blue oil paint on each one, gassing himself out with the smell of mineral spirits. No wonder he could be such a jolly fellow. Half the weight of those things were the dozens of coats of paint.

Do a websearch on "war canoe" and you will see that it's still a semi-popular team sport in Canada.
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Bob Kennington]

[DavidAyars]

Yeah, I left the count out on purpose, because that part of my memory was fuzzier than most. My best guess, and it's just that, is 11 or 13 boys, one guy in the stern, and 10-12 others. Give or take two or three boys, that should be close. Anybody with an alternate view, feel free to pipe up.

I don't ever remember a counselor war canoe race.

I should look at the camp DVD
http://www.wyanoke.com/Prods.htm
and see if there's footage there with a count visible. (plug, plug... anybody who doesn't have one of these, order from Mike... awesome stuff on the camp DVD-- you will definitely enjoy it).

Weren't the war canoes used to bring in and then remove (= douse) King Neptune at his annual carnival?
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Guest]

Outrigger canoe paddling/racing is the state sport of Hawaii. Imagine taking one of those war canoes, with an outrigger on it for extra stability and paddling, say, to the Weirs through ocean swells 10 foot high. Of course there are two or three crews that trade off every 20 minutes or half-hour or so, but my word! You're really out there. Really out there. I remember paddling around Wolfeboro Neck one time, and that was far enough. And if you look at how far away Wyanisle was for a canoe expedition, it makes you scratch your head.

It would have been interesting to have inter-camp war canoe races, with teams that had regular practices and fine-tuned their strokes. Anyone know if any of the other camps were involved at this level of nonsense?

[DavidAyars]

Yeah, looks like 12 guys. I did not remember that councilors manned the stern, at least for the Juniors. Interesting.

I make that as Jim Naas and Jim Yetter as the two closest guys in the still shot you see when you click the link in Mike's post. Anybody else?
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[ghirst]

I recall there were two war canoes but that goes back a long time.

For any of you interested in seeing one, there's one hanging in the main store of Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine.

Grant Hirst

[Tom Rawson]

This probably should go in a thread about pranks, but it involves a war canoe, so here it is. In 1966 when I was in J-4 (Dave Clemens and Steve Downs) there was an ongoing friendly feud between Dave on one hand and Tom Falcon and Dan Mannis on the other. Part of it was my fault as I got in some friendly digs at Tom and Dan in one entry of the daily log that Dave let me write when it was his turn.

We (J-4) were on an overnight at the place north of Lands End (what was that called?). We woke up to find our table from the dining hall in our campsite, completely set with silverware, napkins, etc. On the table was a little note that read:

Rose are red
Violets are blue
Look to the north
For the blue war canoe

I remember hauling the table back to camp in the war canoe and up the hill and trying to get it to the dining hall quickly so we could act as if it had never happened.
_________________
1963 C-5 Walter Scheirer
1964 C-2 Bill Sloane
1966 J-4 Dave Clemens
1967 S-1 Garth Nelson

[Chris Gill]

As some of you may know I have been doing quite a bit of canoeing lately.

Every year there is a canoe race in the Adirondacks called The 90 Miler. It's a three day race with each day about 30 miles including portages. The second day is 30 mile including a 1.25 carry over uneven ground. A Wyanoke War Canoe would be STANDARD WAR CANOE: Minimum of 6 paddlers in a wooden canoe built to meet the following specifications: Maximum length 28’, Minimum width at gunwhales and 6” waterline 39”, Minimum depth of 14”.

The winning time for the second day was 4hrs 42min 30sec, thats about 6.4mph.

The Gray Canoe was a distant second.
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1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[Jim Culleton]