Great Stone Dam Classic

10/14/2026

The 2026 OC-1 Men's results have been updated to correct transcription and spelling errors. Your race director read the number '7' as a '1' when typing the results into Google Drive. Mea Culpa.

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10/13/2026

As you'll see in the race results, there were two new event records set at this year's Great Stone Dam Classic, in OC-2 Outrigger Open, and in OC-1 Outrigger Women. Great work! And I'm excited to announce that, working together, we set another record: The most food donated at our event, ever! Thanks, everyone – feel free to take a bow! This is the cart of food donations right after the weigh-in at the Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Lowell. 198 pounds! W00t!

10/13/2026

Preliminary results from this year's Great Stone Dam Classic are now up on our website. If you have name spelling corrections or timing corrections, PLEASE DO NOT SEND THIS INFO TO US AS A COMMENT ON THIS POST! Please send us a DM, and we'll sort things out. Thank you! Anyway, here's a link to the website. Click 'here' to see the results.

Lawrence Canoe Racers, 1920. Photo courtesy of the Lawrence History Center

10/12/2026

Now that you've paddled the Merrimack, take a trip to Central Massachusetts and paddle the Millers River Challenge Annual Canoe/Kayak Races! Like us, they had to reschedule their race because of the weather. Your race director has paddled this event, and it's a lot of fun. Excellent course, plus it's also the High School Cup!

Attention racers spectators and volunteers. After careful consideration of this weekend's weather forecast we have made the tough decision to postpone our race until October 24th.

We believe this is the best choice for our littlest competitors and we also believe that the 24th is the earliest date that should not interfere with other races.

We really hope you can make it.

10/11/2026

Thanks to everyone who helped make today's Great Stone Dam Classic a success! We'll have results posted here and on the race website late tomorrow. Right now, our timer and registrar has a persistent upper respiratory infection and needs some rest. Here are a few pre-race photos to tide you over.

10/10/2026

OK, that's a full lid. See you tomorrow!

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10/10/2026

We encourage you to bring a donation of non-perishable food to tomorrow's Great Stone Dam Classic! Not only will it get you $5 off your registration, your donation will help feed folks here in the Merrimack Valley through the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. Our donation record is 197 lb of food, set in 2024. Can we break 200 lb this year???

Thanks to your generosity, we collected 187 pounds of food for the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. Great job! While this is 10 lbs less than last year's record donation, the giving per paddler is up. Let's break the record next year, shall we?

10/09/2026

An important safety note, and a legal one as well. Our race will be held this Sunday, October 11th. In Massachusetts, paddlers MUST WEAR PFDs when on the water on or after September 15th. This means you must WEAR a PFD at our race, not just have one in the boat. There will be no exceptions. This will keep us in compliance with both state law and our insurance policy. Thanks!

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10/06/2026

Just a reminder that the Great Stone Dam Classic is happening this Sunday, October 11th! The weather forecast looks solid, the water level is sensible (2,400 cfs at the Lowell gauge), and we're looking forward to seeing you all. You can find out more about the event on our website. Hope to see you Sunday!

Lawrence Canoe Racers, 1920. Photo courtesy of the Lawrence History Center