WEST FORKS – Neil Phillips won the century category with his friend Chip Loring in the Whitewater Open Canoe National Championship Tuesday on the Dead River. And appropriately so.

Phillips of Old Town is one of the event’s founding fathers. He has competed in all but two national championships since it began in 1970. And, while Phillips wasn’t one of the pilgrims who started the first national event, he was the revolutionary who helped give canoeists a say in their national championship.

After long-time Maine race volunteers Bill and Fern Stearns got the American Canoe Association to sanction the first nationals in 1970 on the Dead River, Phillips stepped in five years later to give canoeists some control of the event.

“The ACA sanctions covered boats, sailing, kayaks, boats in the Olympics. Open canoes are an afterthought,” Phillips said. “We wanted control. They could be administrative, but we wanted to run our races.”

Since then, Phillips has invested time, trips and tribulations in the success of the national event.

“In 25 years we’ve had few problems,” Phillips said. “Everybody helps out. At the start, getting our boats ready, everyone gives a hand. We do the check for the minimum width and if it’s not right, we’ll help you with it. We’re not competitive until we start paddling in the water.”

While he’s reluctant to say so, Phillips is competitive. He and Loring won the century category on the five-mile whitewater course by 31 seconds in a time of 20 minutes, 45 seconds. Phillips thought he and Loring were the only ones in the division of men with combined ages over 100, though there actually was one other team in the division.

Yet the spirit of one-upmanship was still there.

“We were just having fun. There wasn’t anyone else [in our division], so we went after the other canoes,” Phillips said after the race.

In 1975, Phillips’ competitiveness showed when he led a contingent of Maine canoeists down to the ACA’s national meeting in the City of Independence and fought for freedom.

In Philadelphia, Phillips went before the ACA and lobbied for canoe organizations around the country to run the national event, rather than the ACA. The ACA agreed and the championship went to the people.

Since then, a committee made up of canoeists from groups like the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organizations have run the national championship each year.

MaCKRO has hosted the nationals seven years. And the same canoe enthusiasts have been helping out. Like Bill and Fern Stearns.

“Back in ’69 I was thinking this would be a good race to have on the Dead River,” Bill Stearns said. “So I asked my wife if she thought we could do it. She’s the unofficial historian of it.”

Fern Stearns, now in her 60s, stopped racing with her husband six years ago, but remembers organizing the race with Bill, getting the event sanctioned, finding access roads to shuttle canoeists to the start and, of course, racing.

“It was an 80-mile shuttle to the start of the 23-mile course, but it took more than three hours on the logging roads,” Fern Stern said. “Today they claim some people got lost in those woods.”

Twenty-six years later, the race is shorter and runs a lot more smoothly. But complications still occur. Today, it’s the forebears of the founding fathers who are finding solutions.

“I was on the committe in ’94 and it worked great. I thought we would just duplicate it,” said race director Scott Phillips, president of MaCKRO and Neil Phillips’ nephew. “But the water was too high.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Bertha, Phillips was the point person who decided whether to run the three days of races on the overflowing Dead River or the less swollen Kennebec.

“It seemed every half an hour we were changing the course,” Phillips said. “One time we delayed the start 20 minutes before the race after changing the course because a rafting company was going to start. The great thing about paddlers is that they understand. There were no gripes.”

In the last 26 years, Neil Phillips has travelled as far as Wyoming, Wisconsin, North Carolina and New York to participate in the nationals.

“It’s a tremendous group of people,” Phillips said.

Canoe Racing

Whitewater Open Canoe National Championships AT DEAD RIVER, West Forks Monday’s sprint results

OC-2 cadet/sr. recreation: N. Wheeler and T. Wheeler 4:34; D. Littlefield and A. Danowski 4:44; Bruce Penrod and Zachary Penrod 4:55; OC-2 women rec.: L. Stearns and M. Pettigrew 4:59; Lori Dana and Nancy Andrew 5:08; Terry Tracey and Kim Bailey 5:09; OC-2 youth kayak: M. Sutherland 6:21; Jack Schurman 7:00; OC-2 canoe: G. Paul and Sapiel 7:10; T. Vernett and M. Dana 7:14; OC-2 inflatable: D. Schurman 8:59; L. Schurman 9:02; Jesse Walters 9:05; OC-1 women rec.: L. Stearns 5:08; Karla Schilinger 5:15; J. Watkins 5:32; OC-1 premier rec.: Charley Brackett 4:40; Scott Phillips 4:43; Jim Farrington 4:50; K1 Short: G. Flatley 4:26; J.C. Brown 4:27; Dick Hanson 4:33; OC-2 mixed rec.: W. McDuffie and L. McDuffie 4:47; J. Watkins and R. Ingram 4:53; Ed Sharp and Karla Schilinger 4:54; OC-1 prmier rac: John Kazimierczyk 4:22; Matt Dingle 4:30; Braman 4:30; OC-2 premier rac: Braman and Will Siegfried 4:12; Murn and Kazimierczyk 4:15; S. Overdorf and M. Vorvwerk 4:16; OC-2 mixed race: L. Stearns and D. Stearns 4:34; M. Vorwerk and K. Vorwerk 4:38; Barry Dana and Lori Dana 4:39; OC-2 cadet: Z. Penrod 5:05; OC-2 century: Neil Phillips and Chip Loring 5:00; G. Stockman and Ida Stockman 5:05; Bob Blair and Frantzman 6:44; K1 men: G. Flatley 4:03; J.C. Brown 4:21; Hanson Dick 4:24; OC-2 premier rec.: Mathieu and Lee MArtin 4:23; C. Brackett and B. Fifield 4:25; R. Davis and L. Lubbers 4:28

Tuesday’s downriver results

OC-2 century race: Neil Phillips and Chip Loring 20:45; Bob Blair and Frantzman, 21:16; OC-2 master race: R. Davis and L. Lubbers 19:45; G. STockman and B. Schmitz 20:17; Ken Roberts and Ray Ingram 20:23; OC-2 premier race: John Mathieu and Lee Martin 19:03; Ed Sharp and Bill McDuffie 19:42; Kirk Havens and Jim Farrington 19:46; K1 men: G Flatley 17:40; J.C. Brown 19:09; Earl Baldwin 19:37; OC-1 junior race: Watkins 21:40; OC-2 women rec.: L Dana and N. Andrews 20:20; Lynne McDuffie and Karla Schilinger 20:45; L. Stearns and R Wren 21:01; OC-2 master: T. Wescott and R. Robertson 19:26; OC-2 premier: Bruce Braman and Will Siegried 18:15; Barry Dana and Shane Oliver 18:26; Dan Murn and J. Kazmeirczyk 18:34;