Dragon Boat West

Barney made his way back to Harrison again causing Havoc with races times and sending inexperienced teams to their doom!
 :x
For those you of who are new to DB, The Big Ugly white DB at Harrison in Lane 1 was the former DB painted purple at DZ last year (then painted white in Kelowna) then came back to DZ and now is on its way again to Kelowna?
Check the time in the race results and I'm pretty sure no one in lane 1 (odd heats  I think) won a race in that pig!
A boat that old and slow should not be used in a race grid as it can affect the out come of a race which would just suck that your race or regatta is doomed due to a defective boat. True , racing is all about dealing with different water and other conditions but those obstacles are shared by all boats and levels the playing field. There are slow boats and fast boats for sure BUT Barney is a PIG boat. Ask FODB about that baby! (or SF but we changed our race plan to try and adjust, still lost but had a decent time)
Bottom line is sink Barney or as someone suggested, bring it to White rock or Richmond and ram it into the pillars!

Couldn't we just use him as an advertisement for Dragon Boating - we don't usually 'kill off' oldtimers - but they can be put out to pasture with a 'gain'!  Maybe he could travel to the various regattas with a purpose in mind - put the 'unusable' paddles in the boat with some interested participants - dry land, or let the children explore the boat from the 'inside'.  Just a thought - sort of sad to try and retire Barney just because he's a bit heavier....think a few of us can relate to that   )c:

Well....we don't have to kill him/her. Just take it out of racing and used only as a practice boat especially when a tire or bucker is not available....

How about having a head on collision between a Gemini and Barney...and see who wins...if they both loose...we all win... :P

i like it  :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

as for asking fodb, yes we got a slower than normal time when we used that boat (13 secs difference between race 1 and 2), and yes i think we can all agree that as a boat it is lacking compared to the other boats, but lets face it, its just a boat.  if we plunked fcrcc mixed into that boat, i'd bet they'd still kick everyone's ass, so all that says for us or any other team is that we need to adjust to deal with it, and above all, paddle that much harder.

LOL I believe Barney was our loaner boat for our first month or 2 of practicing..he gave us quite the workout!

rriiiigghhhtt... that's a very callous statement, rightarm.   So, why are you switching over to a CF paddle from a wooden one; more specifically, why the ZRE in particular?  Better yet, why don't you use a club paddle from now on?   

Ahhh... we raced our frist race in "Barney".  Our bodies felt unusually owned afterwards, and we simply chalked it up as a bad race..   Sweet, now we have an excuse.. heh  :lol:

its not callous and you know i don't disagree with how you feel on this subject; read between the lines

In the final race Roli had the Fraser Valley boat in which the hull was vibranting during the race as it wasn't stable enough through the waves and the jarring motion. As well, man that boat was HEAVY!

Thank gosh it made it to the dock in one piece.

Still another great experience to race in various boats...ha ha ha

Yes
Some of the 6-16s were not in tip top shape!
We drew Barney in our first race and had to call an extended finish to get a decent time.
Boat number 4 in the fast heats was also having issues. We got that baby twice. The seats were separating from the gunnels during the power series, I was praying for the boat to hold together for the finish!
Makes it tough to compete with the faster boats but what doesn't kill (or drown ) you ......

I believe Barney was our loaner practice boat for the first couple of months...at least we got extreme workouts! All other boats felt SO much lighter after paddling Barney! :D :D

haha hilarious!

lets not destroy the Purple Barney... apparently the coach of FODB has been collecting stuffed barneys

I'd take Barney any day over that teal-scaled, ass-pinchin', monkey-butt-inducing, broken-seat boat.  Thank god we didn't have to paddle in that beast.

 lol...hey that broken down teal boat gaves us the fastest time of the day !! a 2.05  ....zoom zoom .It was in pretty bad shape interior wise though ....

 In the A final our boat's gunnel flexed out so far then I had at least a 3- 4 inch gap between the seat and the interior wall.I thought I was going to get pinched inbetween them .....that would have hurt  :shock:

barney actually has a massive crack in seat 8 that makes any seat in the teal boat look like a picnic... but i hear what you're saying!