Vaka & reed

Vaka sprint

Narrow festival hull, two seats, two paddles. Loincloth kit. No shoes in the boat. Breakwater lane painted on the water with floats, buoy turn, home stretch along the crowd rail.

False start costs you one free crotch kick from the other boat's stern man before the restart—standing in the shallows, wrap wet, whole pier watching. Capsize is a reset unless you grab the lane rope to cheat. Then you swim the boat home and take the mark.

First bow across the paint wins. Judges watch paddle fouls and wrap failures. Winner keeps the garland; loser hauls the hull alone while the rail counts.

Reed float (pora-style)

Separate heat: a reed or reed-like float—ride it or lie on it and swim the open lane. Slow, wet, public. The float is traditional theater; the lungs are real. Drop it and you finish the leg swimming free under judge eyes.

This is also the last leg of the island triathlon card (after reed craft paddle and banana haul). Men who only want the float can enter the single heat without the full stamp.

Optional body-rig heat

Posted when Heat is high: one man paddles, one steers with a body-rig line tied to cock or nipples—same idea as Solchute's body-rigged sails, scaled to a canoe. The steersman feels every correction. The paddler feels the laugh from the rail.

Ocean rule

No race starts if the harbor master pulls the wind flag. Medics on the skiff. Salt in the wrap is not a medical excuse.