History-making run from Albany pair

Albany duo John Haynes and Ryan Pearce went down in history when they became the first grandfather-grandson crew to tackle and complete the gruelling 124km Avon Descent at the weekend.

Picture by Michael O'Brien: A power boat crew tackles Extracts Weir during the 124km Avon Descent at the weekend.

Haynes, 76 and Pearce, 17, completed the water race in their fibreglass powercraft less than two hours behind the overall winners in a time of 4h.1min.39sec, placed 34th overall from a field of 44 finishing powercraft crews.

They finished second of five entrants in the novice-past racer category behind father and son duo Kevin and Joshua Williams, who provided a tight battle for top spot throughout the race and finished just over 10 minutes ahead.

But their historic completion didn’t come without its share of drama, Haynes and Pearce flipping their boat in the flat water on day two of the race.

“We got into the flat water and went over a wake and the boat got a bit loose,” Haynes said.

“I thought I better get in line with the boat in front when we went over it and we flipped at about 55km/h.”

Luckily both men were uninjured and managed to restart their engine to finish, with 28-time Avon Descent veteran Haynes joking he threw maiden racer Pearce out of the boat a few times during the event.

Despite his age, Haynes did not completely rule out entering the event again next year in its 40th anniversary.

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