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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[Backward Rowing]

One day event yesterday at Meridian Lake, south of Seattle.  Sponsored by Kent Lions Club in part of the city's harvest festival. 

Any how, here is a photo of first, second, third and fourth place teams in the competitive final race.  The timing tent is found on the dock at the extreme right, the bouys are the "approximate" finish markers.  I can't tell the difference between first and second (boat 2 & 3).

[kryssee]

Wow! Tight race! Nice pic!

[DiggerPig]

Hey Backward,

 How many teams were there at the Kent Festival this past weekend?

[Dr. Evil]

Backward Rowing:

Any results you can share/post? Doesn't look like it is up yet on the festival's website. Thanks.

[tiger]

Based on this angle, boat 2 clearly won it, even the old men of the Richmond festival, with their 2 glass eyes couldn't mistake this final.

LMAO

[gunghaggis]

How many teams?           

10 Women's teams   36 Mixed teams   3 Youth teams    3 seniors teams
but seniors raced in mixed - there was a mix-up as Khmer Krom was registered (2X) - once as Khmer Krom and another as WDBA Khmer Krom - this mix-up also contributed to delays.

Wasabi had 6 teams in Kent. 
Boats used were modified 6-16's courtesy of Mac Gordon.

It was a really friendly event in a wonderful park setting.  I would go again.  In the evening and in the early morning - travel time was just over 3 hours with no ferry or border line-ups.

One major collision and re-race in heat 9.
Sun Dragons Plus lost control of their boat -forcing WDBA/Ranier Dragons into our lane - before utlimately running against them.  I managed to stay away from the melee - but in getting back going.  WDBA bit off our tail, leaving a stubby 2x4 in the holder.  The Race officials should have known there might be trouble.  as the Sun Dragons was backing up to the race barge - their steers person fell off the boat and into the water.

Gung Haggis didn't make the finals for Rec B, finishing 3rd in our semi-finals.
But we had lots of FUN.  We certainly enjoyed being hosted by Tacoma DBA, and look forward to returning the favor for their next visit to Canada.  Our teams consisted of 14 Gung Haggis regulars + 8 paddlers from other teams... including one from Tacoma (Thanks Joe!), and one from Victoria BC (Thanks Backward... notice we put you in the back!)

Final results - to be posted soon.
I took pictures of Tacoma DBA picking up their medals for Mixed Rec B, and Mixed Rec A. 

Teams attending were listed as:

Golden Dragon Women
Amazon Dragons
Ladies of the Lake
Wasabi Team Huge
Survivor Sake
Mighty Women
Wasabi Power Surge
Sirens
Wasabi Team SOAR
Wicked Wahini


Castaways
Freedom Dragons Powered By Starbucks (Portland)
Shibumi  (Portland)
Hot Sake   (Seattle)
Blind Ambition  (Portland)
NAAAPers       (Seattle)
Hampton Woods  (Portland)
Akujiki Dragons
TDBA - Destiny Dragons (Tacoma)
Portland Fire Dragons     (Portland)
Team Fusion
Starbucks Waverunners   (Vancouver)
Furikake Madness
Hot Team Sake              (Seattle)
Stumptown Paddlers        (Portland)
Zen Dragons
Sun Dragons                  (Portland)
Sakeccino Powered By Starbucks   (Seattle) 
Wicked Furikake
Anniemaniacs                  (Portland)
Portland Golden Dragons       (Portland)
TDBA - Destiny Dragons 2     (Tacoma)
Wasabi Mixed                      (Portland)
Dragonboaters
Vintage Sake                       (Seattle)
Dragin Tails
Khmer Krom                        (Seattle/Tacoma)
Microsoft Dragons                 (Seattle/ Bellvue)
Zamboanga                          (Portland)
WDBA/Khmer Krom                (Seattle)
False Creek Grand Dragons
Wasabi Bushido
Wasabi Warriors                     (Portland)
SunDragons Plus                     (Seattle)
WDBA/Rainier Dragons              (Seattle)
Gung Haggis Fat Choy              (Vancouver)

[KarenRobertsPDX]

I have to differ.  This was a highly disorganized, not well run event.  There was no filming of the finishes.  By the third heat there already was a protest filed because the team who was given first place clearly wasn't in first.  Different teams complained about their own (as well as other) teams placing in higher (or even lower) divisions than they wanted to so medals weren't certain for teams, that in a sense, demanded them.  The entire morning results seemed to be thrown out arbitrarily to suit some of the complainers; and teams who warmed up for certain afternoon races were sent away while the organizers attempted to decide what to do.  It was an absolute mess. 

Last year one of the boats wasn't put together properly so one team rebuilt the boat so that the organizers weren't recycling the same four boats over and over again for each heat.

This was my third attempt at this race and it will almost certainly be my last.

[gunghaggis]

I will agree with KarenRobertsPDX that the event was disorgnized and not run as smoothly as it could be.  I will be making my recommendations directly to the race organizers.  They heard my voice loud and clear, after the collision in heat 9.

I think it will be good for the race organizers to network with other race organizers.  Hopefully they will consider bringing in more race organizers such as Water's Edge or work with Tacoma DBA for next year.  TDBA now has 8 BuK boats.   But if the people cannot steer them, and the race officials cannot tell the steers to "move left" or "hold the boat" while doing proper "Chasing" - then the equipment is only as good as the people organizing the event, or the race officials giving directions.

During the semi-finals, there was a huge delay caused by:  paper work issues, partly caused by Khmer Krom being double registered, and by competitive teams getting penalized and being pushed down into the recreation division.  This 30+ minute delay left teams standing waiting in the pre-marshalling and the marshalling areas in the hot sun.  I did check on the situation, then told our team to sit down and rest in the shade.  Then we were immediately copied by the team standing next to them.  Giving top teams time penalties for collisions or such when they are being assessed in heats with recreational and novice teams is silly... because the teams will simply win easily, and a team with less ability is pushed up above their abilities.   

The planned 4:30pm dinner did not happen until 6:20pm.   I had always enjoyed the buffet dinner in the past, but because we had Canadians travelling home they had to leave before the buffet started, as the "volunteers" did their job by enforcing the rules by not letting anybody start eating until the race organizers let the dinner start.

Organizing events is challenging at the best of times.  Event founder Cheryl Corbin retired this year, and the torch was passed on.  It was basically a new event committee that found themselves challenged by only having the start float in place by 9pm, and all the heads and tails accounted for by 9pm also.  I did find the event organizers open to my suggestions emphasizing boating safety, by replacing the steers for the Sun Dragons Plus team - responsible for causing the collision and re-race for Heat 9.

But the site is lovely, we enjoyed spending time with our American dragon boat friends, and everybody on our team would like to come back... even though we didn't get a medal this time around.

[James Cole]

Backward Rowing:

Any results you can share/post? Doesn't look like it is up yet on the festival's website. Thanks.

Don't quote me, but to the best of my memory the following are accurate...

Competitive Mixed:
1st - Wasabi Mixed
2nd - Zamboanga

Women's:
1st - Wasabi Team Huge
2nd - Wasabi Power Surge
3rd - Sirens Paddling Club

Master's:
1st - Wasabi Masters

[James Cole]

Some general feedback...

Pros: as noted, it's a great location and venue. There were a ton of great people there. I had a lot of fun.

Cons: also as noted above, it was really poorly run. Many of the decisions were either bizarre or just plain wrong. The low point was actually when the police were called because one of the race organizers was convinced that a member of Zamboanga had stolen one of the event paddles. Now... why would a team where all the members have their own carbon fiber paddles steal a beat to snot wood paddle that the event had bought used from False Creek?

In the end, it was a fun mellow event. A good club event. Yeah - the organization was week. And yeah... some of the teams took s**t way too seriously. But I'll be back.

[Dr. Evil]

James....thanks for posting some of the results!

 
Boats used were modified 6-16's courtesy of Mac Gordon.

Gunghaggis, KarenRobertsPDX or James....As I haven't paddled at that regatta...what exactly did they modify in the 6/16's and how do these modifications compare to the regular 6/16's in Vancouver in terms of boat performance? Thanks.

[gunghaggis]

 

Boats used were modified 6-16's courtesy of Mac Gordon.

Gunghaggis, KarenRobertsPDX or James....As I haven't paddled at that regatta...what exactly did they modify in the 6/16's and how do these modifications compare to the regular 6/16's in Vancouver in terms of boat performance? Thanks.

The modified 6-16's basically work like regular 6-16's.  The main difference seems to be coverings over the open front and back areas (behind the drummer and behind the steerer or "tiller" in American language) to prevent water from spilling in.

There are pictures of these boats on http://www.seattledragonboatraces.com/
Click on pictures... there are some good shots showing the front and rear areas that are covered.

There is NO CENTER BAR down the middle.  All traditional dragon boats have "spines" or center bars.  Vincent Lo's 6-16 boats have spines.  Originally the center spines were lashed to the boat with ropes.  If you ever go to Seattle - go to the Wing Luke museum in International District.  There is an antique dragon boat hanging on the wall.  Once you see it, you may understand better why dragon boats evolved the way they have.

There appears to be no major performance differences as Mac Gordon's boats have also been used at Lotus Sports's Bill Alley Memorial Dragon Boat regatta each May, held at the Barnet Marine Park in Burnaby.

As to the modifications - you may wish to ask Vincent Lo (creator of Six-Sixteen Dragon Boats) at:
2552 East 21st Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5M 2V8
email: VLo616 (@) aol.com

[Dr. Evil]

Thanks gunghaggis!! But now you have really piqued my curiousity! 

There is NO CENTER BAR down the middle.  All traditional dragon boats have "spines" or center bars.  Vincent Lo's 6-16 boats have spines. 

So do you, or perhaps anyone else on this forum, know what the rationale was for removing the Centre Bar / Spine from the Kent 6/16's? My understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that the whole purpose of Vincent designing the 6/16's with the centre bar was to increase hull rigidity and reduce fore & aft buckling. Given that 6/16's are longer than Gemini's, Milleniums and BUK's, it becomes more critical to reduce the flex or buckling one might experience with a longer hull. So by removing the centre bar, would this not increase hull flex/buckling and consequently decrease hull speed &/or glide?

Maybe I should ask Vincent as to why one would want to remove the spine eh?  Or better yet, just come down to Kent next year and paddle one of the modified 6/16's to see for myself! Like I need another excuse to go dragonboating and travelling!!

Like I said gunghaggis, you've piqued my curiousity....now I should get back to work! Cheers.

[KarenRobertsPDX]

One more thing I forgot.  The times from the first heat were horribly inaccurate (Hot Sake sub 2:00 time -- better than Kai Ikaika's winning time the previous year), Castaways 2:00 time (a 2:15-2:20 crew) which lead to still more problems in advancements.  Both teams ended up with higher seeding in the afternoon (middle lanes) than was proper.  I would wager a guess that all teams in that heat got an advantage of about 15 seconds.

[PaddleFunk]

OK my where to start with Kent... well my mother told me if you have nothing nice to say... but when have I been one to listen to my mother?

OK maybe it wasn't that bad...

Off water...
The site itself was great, the somewhat organic tent village atop the knoll was fun with teams squeezing together to create some shade, they ordered great weather for paddling, and for all the compaints at Alcan... the portapotties where liveable and they even had the portable sink working in the morning at least until the water ran out... meh but who cares I found flush toilets with the shower by that time.  The volunteers where enthusiastic and the off water race marshal was enthusiastic to say the least (Kerry take note)

There was a significant delay between the second preliminary round and the semis while some teams played politics to ensure that if the registered as rec they placed as rec (I think I now know why ALCAN did away with the comp/rec/novice registrations)

Oh yeah and the beer garden that was part of Cornucopia days was no where near the site... don't they know how much they could make off of us???  Pretty strange for a country where you can buy beer at 7-11...

On the water...

The woman in the chase boat needed to loosen up.... man what a... a... a... voice... yeah that's it voice.

The held start was an interesting touch but the side drift created havoc with the alignment as boats had to back in (generally at angles) and then try to gain some sort of alignment to compensate for the wind while other teams muddles with their boats attempting the same thing. 

There was a significant collision that knocked one of the boats out of racing commission.  Well OK once boat came across 2 of 4 lanes to take off the tail of the outside lane... through the boat between them. 

The dock cops where making an effort but I wish these people would loosen up... as far as I know we have all had experience loading and unloading the boat... especially by the 3rd or 4th race of the day... just how thick do they think we are... we don't need seat by seat instructions on how to get into the boats... and if you're worried about some one falling in and drowning they did have real lifeguards on duty. 

The overriding nice thing about the on water portion of the event was just that, the water, it was clean and you could actually swim in it without fear of growing extra limbs... nice change from the creek or the inner harbor. 

Overall it was fun... but I think that had more to do with the people than with the event... and it was something to do between Nanaimo and this weekend's plethora of races.