Charlie,
I absolutely see your point and I am not surprised by your answer, but I figured that it never hurts to ask.
(I have been sick for the last several days with the flu, so today is the first day that I have gotten back on this site.)
Thank you for the offer of a canoe. I believe that Kevin also mentioned that he might have one that I could borrow for the race. He doesn't live that far from me, so I might take him up on the offer, or I might just sign up and do it solo. Racing in a canoe is very different from racing in a kayak, you all might be waiting a long time at the finish line for us to finally come floating in. ....

Josh, to answer your question. I have never practiced getting back into my Epic Endurance 18 with Noah. However, when Daniel (age 8 at the time) and I did a 15 mile race on the Missouri back in 2010, we used my Prijon Seayak, and we did practice self rescue multiple times at Longview Lake. It was never a problem for us to get back into the kayak, it was just a matter of working on our time and becoming faster at getting back in. I have a water pump and 2 paddle floats, and it worked well. (I also removed the back hatch and Daniel sat behind me.) The front hatch was enough to keep the kayak afloat.
However, that was for the Missouri River, where you have to know how to get back into your boat!
On this river, with Noah, I figured if we tipped over, we would just be swimming to the shore.
Nevertheless, with that being said, nothing is faster to climb back into than a surfski. One minute tops, and you are back in. .......... To bad I cant just duck tape my son to the back of my surfski and race in that!!

ps, I am joking..........
See you all on the 24th.
Traci