Lighthouse Festival hosts Tour du Teche VI race award ceremony

Staff Report
The Lighthouse Festival Sunday agenda is all about the internationally popular Tour du Teche canoe and kayak race.
The festival will be Saturday and Sunday in Berwick.
Now in its sixth year, the race draws entries from around the world. Racers will anxiously be looking for the big red Southwest Reef Lighthouse along the banks of the Atchafalaya River in Berwick, the finish line. An awards ceremony will conclude the festival at 4 p.m. Sunday.
This year’s race ushers in a new challenge for racers. In two more years, there is a chance to be named a Triple Crown winner.
The Louisiana Triple Crown is the best of the best in canoe and kayak racing in the state. It will be settled by a three-year quest, starting this fall, for the fastest overall time in all three of Louisiana’s grueling ultra-marathons, the Tour de la Rivière Rouge, Tour du Teche 135, and the 410 de Louisiane, which is a combination of the first two.
Tour du Teche 135, now in its sixth year, is a three-day, 135-mile staged race down the entire length of Bayou Teche. “Staged” means that it runs in three stages or courses: 49 miles from Port Barre to St. Martinville today; 59 miles from St. Martinville to Franklin on Saturday; and 27 miles from Franklin to Berwick on Sunday.
The 410 de Louisiane, also new this year, is a combination of Tour du Teche and Rivière Rouge, back-to-back.
Paddlers in each of the five pro racing classes of Tour du Teche who compile the fastest combined time in all three races at the end of the 2017 races will have their names engraved in granite at the iconic red lighthouse finish line in Berwick. There will be cash prizes as well. The Triple Crown pot stands at $5,000 currently and the hunt is on for sponsors to make it grow.
The 410 must be run by itself (a racer may not register for both the 410 and the Rivière Rouge or Tour du Teche 135 in the same year). However, racers may enter both the Rivière Rouge and Tour du Teche 135, separately, in the same year. Anyone who has completed the three races in two years may try for a faster time on any of the other races in the third year.
The Louisiana Triple Crown recognizes the individual paddler. Any paddler vying in a multi-paddler class is not required to have the same partners for each race of the Triple Crown, nor do the boats have to be the same but they must be in the same class.
The pro racing classes of Tour du Teche are:
—Class A: USCA C2/Pro (USCA specs) – Tandem canoes that can race at the USCA nationals and that include the following boat specifications 3X27 (Pro-Boat), 4X32 (USCA cruiser), and USCA Standard C2. Single blade paddle only. Temporary modifications to this type of boat to make it fit into any other class is not allowed.
—Class B: Solo Unlimited – Single blade paddles only. Minimum length, 14 feet.
—Class C: Tandem Unlimited – Two paddlers, single and/or double blade paddles. (USCA C2s do not qualify for this class, USCA C2s must race in Class A.) Minimum length, 14 feet.
—Class D: Solo Unlimited – Double blade paddles only. Minimum length, 14 feet.
—Class E: Big Boat Unlimited – Minimum three paddlers, maximum six paddlers, single and/or double blade paddles.