Budějovice – Praha
In 2013, Budějovice-Prague also took place in a non-stop version. 13 competitors in 9 boats took part to give tribute to the legends of the race, who in the history accomplished to paddle the distance from České Budějovice to Prague at once. It happened only in 1922, when the first race was held as nonstop, and in 1955, when the legendary couple Felix-Kudrna successfully tried to create a record time on this track.
In 1922 there were no dams on the Vltava river, the participants of the race had to overcome the number of weirs for the period of the types of dams (allegedly about 100 kg weighing). Another obstacle was the part of Svatojanské currents, which could not be overcome otherwise than by pulling the boat on the ropes. On the contrary, the advantage was the flowing river. In 1955, the Felix-Kudrna couple had already struggled not only at the time of the still existing weirs in the České Budějovice-Solenice section, but also with the “non-flowing” Vltava on the already existing dams Vrané, Štěchovice, Kamýk and Slapy. As well as the competitors in 1922, Felix and Kudrna set off from České Budějovice near Sokolský ostrov, and arrived in Prague-Podolí at the yacht club of Bohemian Yacht Club under rock of Vyšehrad. They created a new track record of 20 hours and 10 minutes, which should never be beaten …
However, in 2013 the organizers of “classic Budějovice” came up with the idea of organizing a non-stop version of the race with an attempt to beat the long-standing Felix and Kudrna record. There were 18 registered ships, but only 9 brave racers stood on the start line at České Vrbné. They set out in the dark at 4am. Mojžíšek, Šára, and Laube became the front bunch and the others tried to go at least in pairs. Some boats took an one hour break on the Orlík Dam to get refreshed. Then it was usually lone ride to the finish line. The first paddlers tried for the first time the long portage from Zvírotice to the Musík bay (8 km) and then took the legendary Kolna portage (4.5 km). The end of the race was at least somewhat easier due to nonfunctional Modřany weir, which made the flow of Vltava river a little bit quicker.
Petr Mojžíšek was the first men who appeared in Prague-Hodkovičky at water tavern “U Sváry” and it was well before 7pm, which was the estimated winning time. The total time of 13:27:58 was such a significant breakthrough of legendary Felix and Kudrna despite the fact that the race track was about 11 km shorter and even shortened by the long portages. Eventually, all the brave paddlers who managed to reach the finish line were winners. Vojta Mareš who stepped out of the race at Orlík dam after about 90 km of brave fight with sore knee and weather conditions deserves a honor as well. Category C2T was occupied by new type of racing-tourist boats called tripper and they managed the whole track without alternate portages. Herzan and Vlček were the fastest, followed closely by Hermann and Hajský. Of course the race also had its impressive stories, for instance when the seakayak paddler Štěpán Chromovský was trying to persuade his exhausted body on the Slapy dam to continue in the race – it took him four hours. Another nice story was written by the seconding team for the South Bohemian C2T couples Ouředník-Švec and Pinc-Grofek, who gave their competitors regular refreshments.