Dragon Boat West

SAVE THE DATE! The 2011 Portland Dragon Boat Race, presented by DragonSports USA, has been confirmed for September 10th & 11th, 2011 at beautiful Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon.

More information coming soon. Online registration will open in early 2011.

Portland Dragon Boat Race online:
www.portlanddragonboats.com
[email protected]
www.twitter.com/pdxdragonboat

DragonSports USA online:
www.dragonsports.org
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/dragonsportsusa
www.twitter.com/dragonsportsusa

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder (if you didn't know already) that registration for the 2011 Portland Dragon Boat Race, presented by DragonSports USA on September 10th & 11th, 2011, is now open.

Registration fees are as follows:
Local Teams - USD 900.00
Visiting Teams - USD 800.00
Junior Teams - USD 400.00

There is a USD 100.00 Early Bird discount on all registration fees for teams that register before June 15, 2011.

Portland Dragon Boat Race online:
www.portlanddragonboats.com (http://www.portlanddragonboats.com)
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/pdxdragonboat (http://www.facebook.com/pdxdragonboat)
www.twitter.com/pdxdragonboat (http://www.twitter.com/pdxdragonboat)

DragonSports USA online:
www.dragonsports.org (http://www.dragonsports.org)
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/dragonsportsusa (http://www.facebook.com/dragonsportsusa)
www.twitter.com/dragonsportsusa (http://www.twitter.com/dragonsportsusa)

Please let me know if you have any questions... hope to see you there!

Me again. Just a heads up that the Early Bird Deadline to register ($100 off registration) is in one week.

List of teams that have registered to date is online at http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/2011teams (http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/2011teams)

We'll be updating it regularly over the next week. As in past years, I am sure that most teams will wait until right before the deadline to register, but we've got a good group of out-of-towners signed up already!

Hope to see you in September!

Just a couple of more weeks to register for this race! We're up to 65 teams with room for a few more.

List of registered teams is online at http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/2011teams (http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/2011teams)

Portland Dragon Boat Race online:
www.portlanddragonboats.com (http://www.portlanddragonboats.com)
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/pdxdragonboat (http://www.facebook.com/pdxdragonboat)
www.twitter.com/pdxdragonboat (http://www.twitter.com/pdxdragonboat)

DragonSports USA online:
www.dragonsports.org (http://www.dragonsports.org)
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/dragonsportsusa (http://www.facebook.com/dragonsportsusa)
www.twitter.com/dragonsportsusa (http://www.twitter.com/dragonsportsusa)

Thanks to everyone who turned out at the 2011 Portland Dragon Boat Race last weekend. 75 teams and ridiculously hot weather!

Mixed Fremont (A Division) Final Results:
1   Kai Ikaika
2   Portland Fire Dragons
3   Navy Dragon Anchors
4   Anniemaniacs
5   Dragon Hearts Ultimate

Women Broadway (A Division) Final Results:
1   Kai Ikaika Women
2   Wasabi Power
3   Bridge City Blue
4   Wasabi Huge
5   Amazon Dragons

Complete results posted at http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/results (http://www.portlanddragonboats.com/results)

We're planning on the same weekend (the weekend after Labor Day) again next year. We'll confirm that hopefully later this year. Hope to see you there!

Survey is now posted for those that participated in last weekend's Portland Dragon Boat Race!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdxdragonboat2011 (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdxdragonboat2011)

Overall it’s a good race,

-   beautiful venue
-   friendly atmosphere
-   good beer garden

BUT, the downsides
-   the starter is still pretty bad (lots of uneven starts i.e. some teams with big leads or moving on the start, and different start positions i.e. some races are 5 or 10 metres longer or shorter than others)
-   the lanes, being in a river, are somewhat uneven (lane 5 is generally not preferred, they should put the last seed in lane 5 not lane 1, e.g. top to bottom is lanes 3, 2, 4, 1, 5)
-   one bad boat in Lane 3 caused a lot of unfair races and teams being in the wrong divisions.

Thanks for the feedback, we love our Waterfront Park too! Since this is out there in a public forum, just wanted to address these concerns quickly, just to let you know that I have some of these same concerns and that we are listening :)

I thought our starters (John did most of the starting, but we had a couple of people relieve him, including me) did a pretty good job for the 80+ races that we ran. I was out there for an hour on Sunday and there was definitely a tailwind that made things challenging. That being said, there's always room for improvement and I am confident that keeping the same starter every year (assuming he agrees to do it again), will lead to more consistency and better results in the long run. I'll be sure that he receives everyone's feedback and talk with him about ways to improve.

As for the lanes and boats, we'll be testing out our boats and looking at the race course over the next year. That's my primary focus for improvement in 2012. We thought we had addressed a lot of the problems from several years ago (last year went especially well, I thought, though we were only running 4-boat heats). We made sure to wash all of our boats within a reasonable time of the race, but you can't argue with the results. We have lots of teams in Portland that I am sure will be more than happy to run some practice races so we can sort these issues out if we decide to continue using our fleet of Six-Sixteens for this race.

Yup first time we've been there and we L O V E D it.

oh please do keep those six-sixteens at the event...given the varying conditions and occasional crazy boat wash, I'm thinkin' they will continue to be the best suited for this venue...

The 6-16s were interesting to race in, to say the least. I've never personally raced in one before Portland, and at our home club in Vancouver we do everything possible to avoid having to use one.

If you do decide to keep the 6-16's, for whatever reason, please warn us  :lol: On one hand, it gives stability in the area, (which actually wasn't that bad) but on the other hand the things are tanks.

The festival was pretty good despite the late start on Saturday. Were all the visiting teams paired up with a host team, or was this optional? I liked the venue a lot. It was my first time in Portland and I think the people there are very kind.

All in all, I think I would do the festival again if they put faster boats in.

You think the 6-16's are tanks :?? Maybe your are spoiled at FCRCC.
Mandachan, you should go down and paddle in the Rose Festival in Portland.  I think after that experience you will think 6-16's are like F1 race cars  :lol:.

I personally liked racing in the old school 6-16's but found them not even in terms of boat run.  I found that doing the women's and mixed bridge race back to back too time consuming, and cut into my beer drinking.  I think if you hold the women's event on Saturday like in Alcan, the festival would not run so late on Sunday, and the women could do both divisions without getting so tired.  I thought the venue was great, as well as the beer garden.  Good job by the volunteers and staff.  The starting wasn't that fair, but under the conditions, I think it is as good as you could hope for. And as usual, Mandachan and her partner were fashionable. They brought a smile to my face. 

Oh, we warned you... posted in the rules (under "Equipment") and sent in the emails to team captains.

Like I said, we'll consider all options for next year at this point. The 6-16s are great for our river when the Coast Guard & Sheriff Patrol boats have to leave or aren't paying attention. They're definitely ideal practice boats for our teams. And yes, they're race cars compared to the Rose Festival bathtubs. You should see some of our Portland teams when we go to venues with BUK boats. We freak out... tippy canoes!

Host team arrangements were totally optional, but most took advantage of the offer when we asked the second time around (after registration). I think we may just go ahead and assign everyone one in the future--it is what you make of it, even if it's just a friendly face at the race and nothing more. Sounds like many friends were made last weekend!

I'd take the 6-16s over the multi-upgraded Geminis any day.  BUKs are still my fav though.  Many teams were pulling sub 2min times, so the boats were not that cumbersome.  I think if the boats raced in the other direction (up river), there would be more complaints. 
I've been down to Portland several times in the past, but this is my first time down for the DB Festival. It's a great little city, & I've always had a good time when I've visited. I know of a few people (including myself) that make comments like 'it's the kind of city that I could live in'.  Being Canadian, that's easier said than done.  I digress.

I thought the Festival was really good.  There are many competitive teams in the Portland area, and there were several other out of town teams that kept things interesting.  Issues exist (e.g. Lane 5, one of the boats in Lane 3, the starts), but it's difficult to run a 'perfect' festival.  You're often not going to please all people all of the time.

One of the reasons my team has not done the Portland Festival more often is the dates of the Festival.  It's usually around the time of the San Francisco and Kelowna Festivals.  In the past few year's, we've done the San Francisco Festival, and we're enjoyed it. This year, the festivals are on back-to-back weekends, which makes it difficult to do both.

The slow boat in Lane 3 being referred to is the orange boat. That caused lots of problems, please don't use it again.  :x

Here's an example, Kai had that boat in the semi, Ultimate in the final. It probably added about 5 seconds to team's times.

Semi Final
Dragon Hearts Ultimate 01:47.34
Navy Dragon Anchors 01:49.70
Kai Ikaika 01:49.84

 
Final
Kai Ikaika 01:52.16
Navy Dragon Anchors 02:00.87
Dragon Hearts Ultimate 02:02.74

Other than that, a great festival. There were a lot of fast teams there! Great competition. And I like the 6/16s.

Just a friendly reiteration: I knew we were racing in 6-16's this year, but if you do decide to put them in for 2012, I'd rather know before we get the Rules manual, ie before I sign up. Unfortunately I officially rostered about a week before the festival, and didn't know about the 6-16s until a couple days before. My own damn fault! But if you do use them again, it'd be awesome to have 26-person boats! Woo hoo!

I mean, racing is racing so please run your festivals how you want to. I'm just here because you asked for opinions. I'd do it via SurveyMonkey but this isn't DBE ;)

Oh my goodness, I am so spoiled by FCRCC.

It also looked like a boat crossed into DH Ultimate's lane during the finals too.

If so, DH Ultimate got a raw deal in the finals.  Slow boat and another crossing into their lane.

Personally...I don't really buy the "lane 3 boat slow" argument - its pure paddling plain and simple. Throughout the whole festival lane 3 was the one that WON most races, I know every race we raced in 3 we won ours, and we were in both those races mentioned. When it comes to the semi-final and the final DH didn't get the bum and Kai didn't get the bum, they were out paddled pure and simple. What is the point in splitting hairs over what happened in one race from the next, no one was interferred or hit

It's 'cuz your team is just that good.  8))

What team were you on? Were they in even-numbered or odd-numbered heats?

Get over it mandachan -  sure BUKs are nice but most of us who have been around for a while will train and strategize for the boats and conditions we anticipate in other venues and not expect those places to change to suit our particular wants. Teak, 6-16, Milleniums, Gemini's, BUKs, paddle tanks, rivers, lakes, oceans etc - the more variety the better - bring it on!! FCRCC does have a 6-16 which can/should be used specifically for training for events like this.

I enjoyed the Portland venue but I do have one squawk - in one of our heats sunday morning the boats in lanes 4 and 5 were nearly swamped by waves just prior to the start - the starter also missed the fact that both steerspeople had their arms up which is normally the "not-ready" signal to the starter...anyway the race started and both teams had to paddle with a few dozen gallons of water in their boats.  When protests were filed and a rerace requested the offiicials asked the winning boat whether they would agree to rerace - of course they didn't so no rerace occured.

Its important that a protest be assessed and any corrections made based on the merits of the protest - not on whether the "winner" want to rerace or not - they are never going to want to rerace particularly if they won under unfair circumstances.

Thats it - keep up the good work!

I don't think the issue is about which lane was slow, but rather that one of the two boats in lane 3 had an issue.  Perhaps your team got lucky.

There was an issue with one of the lane 3 boats.  I believe the race organizers already acknowledged it if I'm not mistaken.  Lane 5 also had a "slower current" so to speak.  Although i wouldn't call it that, but there was a noticeable difference between the 1/4 mark and about 100m left.

These are after the fact and to be tested out by the local teams, then adjusted accordingly if need be.

I need to set the record straight on this. Only one formal protest was filed race weekend and it was resolved via a time penalty to the offending team. There were a few instances where informal complaints were lodged and ultimately the protesting teams declined to file formal protests because the penalty would not have made a difference in the outcome of the race or, where applicable, they did not wish to rerace.

I was notified of only one swamping incident all weekend and that was the second to last race on Saturday. Via radio, the course marshal recommended a rerace and I told him I would allow it if any of the teams actually wanted to rerace (keep in mind, this was at the end of a long day of racing in incredibly hot weather). It was reported back to me that no one wanted to rerace. Maybe I should have gone down to the dock to confirm that myself, but I didn't hear until Sunday morning that at least one of the teams wanted to rerace. At that point is was impossible to do (teams had been seeded into divisions, some not racing until close to 11 and not on site) and long past the time for a team to file a protest.

In hindsight, I am sure that there are things that we could have done better to ensure a fair result in this situation, but there is a formal protest procedure outlined in the rules that would have certainly ensured that this would have been resolved in a timely fashion.

My team was in lane 5 for this race on Saturday and I know that both lane 4 and us wanted a re-race but the majority (lanes 1 to 3 who were not effected by the swamping) did not so majority ruled and no re-race was granted. By the time we were unloaded from the boats, after being asked to help store them for the night, the race course had been taken down so there wasn't an opportunity to file a formal protest. Could a re-race have effected the overall standings and advancements for the teams in that heat? Quite possibly since some teams do better with 250m dashes than full 500m races and advancements were based on placements rather than time.

I think this is just one of those situations that should be taken as a learning experience for the starter, race officials, and drummers/steers...if the starter feels their boat rocking or the race officials see rollers coming into the race course before a race is started...don't start the race! If at the start line, drummers or steers feel the boat is not ready to start, it is the drummer that should race their arm to catch the starters attention and not the steers. Remember...the starter is looking at the front of the boat for alignment, not the back.

Overall, I thought the festival was very well organized. People were friendly. Competition was excellent. Weather was fantastic. Tax-free shopping was a total bonus! I would definitely race at this festival again.  :lol:

Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers and host teams for a job well-done!

I've added my comments at the surveymonkey site and will not repeat them here.  Don't worry, it was all positive.  I like this festival.

One point that I forgot about, however, was that I was able to paddle in the mixed bridge to bridge 2000m-ish race.  The boat our team raced in was quite dirty at the bottom and we were scraping gunge from the bottom of the boat prior to the start, at least as far as our arms could reach.  Not sure if this was a function of having 11 boats in that last race - perhaps we got the extra one that was not used for the regular races and it was simply not cleaned prior to the event.  On the other hand, I never stuck my hand down to feel under the boat for any of the previous 6 or so races that I was in over the weekend, so they could have all been dirty for all I know.  It is possible that some of the boats were clean and others were not.

I guarantee that the Orange boat was slower than the others, probably about 4 seconds over 500 m. It was in the Even heats until Heat 70 was cancelled, then it was in the Odd heats (after Heat 69 was Heat 71 so boats 1 thru 5 went from even heats to odd heats, boats 6 thru 10 went from odd to even). The other lane 3 boat was blue and had #8 on it and it was fine.

Look at teams that raced each other head to head in different heats and note the differences, the data is compelling. If you look at all the teams that raced against each other more than once, and one team had the orange #3 boat, and you compare the times, then you can comment on what you see. Sometimes people blame a boat when it's not the boat's fault, but a boat can be slow, it does happen, and they should be identified and fixed or not used.

More examples of teams that raced each other twice, once in the orange boat:

KP Dragons Broccoli 02:01.57
Wasabi GM Mixed 02:01.70

KP Dragons Broccoli 01:58.22
Wasabi GM Mixed 02:01.46


Eye of the Dragon 01:57.99
DragonMax 01:58.36

DragonMax 01:56.56
Eye of the Dragon 02:02.77


Dragon Ladies 01:57.75
Saggin Dragons 02:01.89

Saggin Dragons 02:09.10
Dragon Ladies 02:09.20



 

It was my first time to the Portland festival and definitely not my last! Beautiful venue and the weather was gorgeous! Thank you to both of our host teams, Shibumi and Blew by U. Everyone was so hospitable and provided lots of food and water for the weekend. I didn't mind racing in the 6-16s as we finished sub 2 in all our races. Our fastest times ever!  :wink: We won the Corporate division and loved the fact that we received medals as well as a huge trophy that we got to keep. Our sponsor, Quality Foods, is going to love that!               

Just curious if any other paddlers lost any personal items? My jersey went "missing" in between races. A paddle bag also went "missing" with some fundraising money in it. Both in the same area, enroute to the marshalling area by the Honey Buckets. Fortunately, I was pre-warned about the lack of security and I didn't take anything else of value with me! Ahhh...the convenience of staying directly across from the race site! Perhaps some Security presence would be beneficial. :think:

I would definitely recommend this festival! Many great food choices with restaurants and food carts. As most of my friend know, I love to shop! Outlet malls and no tax...I was in heaven!!! :drool: