SEARSMONT – Friday’s early spring snowstorm cut the field in half, but the draw of open water was enough to keep the 23rd St. George River Race afloat.

Kayaker Jeff Sands of Kenduskeag won it for the second straight year, finishing the 6-mile course in 39 minutes, 46 seconds. Houlton’s Fred Ludwig, who also races a kayak, was second in 40:03.

Steve Woodard of Cumberland finished third in his canoe (43:37), the duo of Clayton Cole and Paul Cole (Corinth and Groveland, Mass., respectively) were fourth in 43:52 and Bangor’s Jamie Hannon was fifth with a time of 44:11.

Ninety-six paddlers in 59 craft turned out for the race, about half of what race organizer Dale Cross was expecting.

“It was nice to have open water, at least,” he said. “[The river] could have been iced in, like almost everything else around here. The water was a little slower than last year but everyone had fun and no one got hurt.”

Ludwig, who is returning to racing in earnest after back surgery in 2000 slowed him, said he paddled about as well as he could have to finish just 17 seconds behind Sands.

“I was pretty happy with that [time],” Ludwig said. “I thought I had a faster boat than Jeff, and I was hoping I might be able to beat him.”

Ludwig said that being as close as he was – while not getting nipped by a painfully close margin – was encouraging.

“I’m glad it wasn’t [by] a couple of seconds, because if it was that close, you start looking at things you could have done differently,” Ludwig said.

Ludwig said the one-man open racing canoe class provided much of the excitement, as Woodard and Owen – who usually paddle together, battled against Hannon, Matt Dingle and Paul Brown.

“That was really impressive,” Ludwig said. “I think back several years, and we would compare our K1 times to the fastest [two-man canoes],” Ludwig said. “Generally we’d be three or four minutes faster than the fastest C2s. This time I think the C1s were faster than the C2s.

In fact, Woodard, Hannon and Owen recorded three of the fastest six times of the day.