[Guest]

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

 

Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

197 Guests, 0 Users

[puppy]

That was a  beautiful weekend in Victoria....couildn't beat the wonderful weather they got.....

To help out the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival, could you provide some feedback about this weekend's races?

IE: Did you like the race grid?
    Was the racing fair and equitable?
    What would you change?
    How was the water officials?
    Did you like the marshalling?
    What would you do to improve this festival?

PS Please provide constructive feedback.....


Thanks

[puppy]

Couple of things that I would like see revamped....

1) Speed up the results to the teams.
2) Advancements required much quicker on Sat. afternoon. Some teams were left waiting for the Sunday race times, but some teams had dinner arrangements
3) Start Officials need a better PA System
4) Better communication between Water Officials and Starter
5) Require lane markers at Start line, Finish line and one half point marker (the halfway marker may be an issue because it might be in the way of the ferries)
6) Request for a "authorized" pool of drummers and/or Steerspeople, for those team who require them
7) Water officials need to call down teams that loose control
8 ) Racer's Village should only have one entrance and a separate exit. The entrance and exit were to tight...Security was good but...traffic flow was tough to negotiate...
9) Start the races earlier, so that we can finish earlier...a lot of teams left because of ferry rides.
10) On the start line, have a premarshalling buoy....teams line up first there, then bring them up to the start line....the longer they held us, the more the boat drifted.
12) Let teams get to the start line, in ANY ORDER....don't make the follow in boat order...just feels like we are kids...Some teams need to prep for the start of the race...let them warm up but agreed...keep them moving towards to the start line...
13) Ask the Porta-pottie group to clean the toilets AT NIGHT...not during the races.....that smell could kill an ARMY....enough said.

[alcanranker]

Victoria is always one of my favourite festivals.  This year it appeared they had some new people involved.  The overall festival is still very good but they need to work on the following (IMO):

1.  Square the race course up, they cannot possibly tell me that the start is the same width as the finish, definitely the race course is skued like a funnel, wider at the start and narrows at the end.  Also the finish is very narrow for 5 boats, it is suppose to be 9 meters per boat and there is just no way that is 45+ metres across.
2.  Water officials need to be more vocal and on steerspeople to maintain their line.  There appeared to be lots of boats coming over, adding a couple of markers at certain points (i.e. the middle of the course) to let the steerspeople know would help.  I know there is a lot of traffic but they need something to give assistance to the steerspeople.
3.  Race results were a little slow getting out.  Slower than previous years.  I know they had problems with the grid for Sunday morning which made them delay the release of the morning races.  Nothing major but I would have thought they would have had all the necessary race grid details done since it has not changed in years, again maybe it was becuase there were new people and I know how difficult doing this stuff is .
4.  Start the races a little earlier on Saturday and build into the race grid when the Coho is coming and going, at least add some time around then.  For the teams that were stuck out there in the sun it can be quite draining and they definitely know the approximate time when ferries are coming and going, build it in (if possible).  I also understand why they start late on Saturday (allow for teams from Vancouver etc to catch the Saturday morning ferry) but it makes for a very late day especially if there are delays (as happened on Saturday).

As you can see nothing major to do, Victoria is still a wonderful festival and for first year paddlers this is the festival that will get them hooked on dragonboating.

[Hazyblue]

Great festival, great racing and a lot of fun.  Only 2 comments - we had to wait until after 5:30pm on Saturday to race - made for a really long day 8)  Start earlier please. 
Have the port-a-pots cleaned at night, not Sunday morning. Hideous way to start your morning.
And can we please have bands/music/dancing in the beer garden instead of the drums and dancing ladies. .  . Very nice, but really  . . . we wanna dance too!!  Nanaimo rules for that one

Other than that, about as much fun as I can remember having at a festival in a long time.  Alcan should pay attention.

[flybry]

Yes, cleaning the port-o-potty during the race was not a good experience.

[Backward Rowing]

I dunno, here's my two-cents worth:

a) mid-point markers using positioning boats, so when traffice does come in, they positioning boats would move (extra two skiffs and four volunteers).
b) start the race 30 m behind the current line to make the course back to 500m (harder start, more watchful eye on traffic, but do-able, perhaps a zodiac to push lane 1 boat if it drifts too far, another two volunteers).
c) use wireless technology, so the starter would have double speaker action from both sides of the narrows (extra volunteer to guard equipment on Songhees side)
d) re-work the timing equipment.  if i could be so nerdy, adding info via gps to item e and i look like tsn.  also, would help with any issues of "wake-riding".
e) re-consider the "event photographer" to be an all event recording contract (which would include videos).  People would still buy it from vendor, but they would give low-res freebies for the victoria dragon boat festival organization for advertising.  This should make money for the festival.
f) ditto about posting info about the following races (from Saturday to Sunday)
g) ditto about start races earlier on Sunday (which would prevent paddler from drinking heavily.... oh, sigh)
h) ditto on rescheduling to include Coho, Clipper and other issues
i) perhaps jumbotorn (as what happened in Harrison Lake) to show the start of the race (really expensive)

[SplishSplash]

Some feedback for the Victoria Dragon boat festival…

1)  Definitely the water officials need to be louder…it was extremely hard to hear them out in lanes 1 & 2 especially with the planes coming and going.  And they need to get the boats going quicker, as we waited too long out on the water for races starts.  I agree with Alcanranker who said to try work around the timing of the Coho, etc.  Also I had a feeling that some of the water officials did not have much experience doing this job in comparison to previous festivals in Victoria…just a feeling…
2)  Start time on Saturday, please start earlier it made for a long day waiting between races.
3)  Security at the gate was okay – I witnessed people still getting through with out wrist bands…and sometimes the volunteers were ‘socializing’ more than asking for bands.  Also my team was on the “outsideâ€� portion of the tents (Close to the port-o-potties) and someone took down the “fenceâ€� beside us and people were coming and going under/through this part of the tent…NO SECURITY there.  Kind of defeats the purpose of having security. 
4)  The race results/times (for Sunday) were very slow coming out on Saturday afternoon.  Maybe that was because of the late start in the morning???  Not sure, would be nice to have the results sooner than 8:30 pm.
5)  Being from Nanaimo…guess I am biased but yes…let’s get some music for dancing after the races in the beer garden 
6)  POSITIVES...your volunteers were great with marshalling/on the docks(especially Greg - he does a wonderful job!)......venders nice and helpful.  Thanks to all those who helped put on a great weekend of paddling and fun.  Can't wait for next year

[vicpaddler]

     If your thinking of the fence beside one of the Victoria teams, I can assure you that they knew everyone that was coming and going through that section of fence. It was simply more convenient then going all the way around to the main entrance.

[dto]

Schedule the races with planned breaks around the arrival/departure schedule of the Cohoe & Clipper & etc.?   A good idea, if it could be done with some assurance that the boats would be on time.  That might not be the case, unfortunately.  Maybe another way would be to post a spotter out by the main entrance at Ogden Point, so there would be some minutes warning at least for the arrivals, and thus the race marshalling could be adjusted in real time.

Or, arrange some radio link with the ferries themselves, or the Harbour Traffic Manager (assuming there is one), to get the info?  Then again, that info might be "security sensitive" in these All Too Strange Times we are living in ...

Potties cleaned at night ... overnite means overtime, right?  Don't hold your breath (except when downwind of the potty-cleaner truck, of course!!).

But it would sure be an improvement if the durn things were not always running out of tee-pee!!

One other suggestion - move the "guests/sponsors" tents at mid-wharf back from the edge of the dock by a couple of metres, so that people standing in front of & sitting in the grandstands between there and the Finish Line don't have their sightline to the Start line blocked by those tents.  Some of the best action is often at, & just after, the Start - but you can't see it unless you're right at the end of the wharf.  Maybe also move the Announcer tent back a couple of metres.  I'm not suggesting that the area in front of those tents be opened up for "anyone" to walk thru - that's unlikely anyway, I'd guess - just that the rest of the dock's spectators' sightline to the Start be clear.

Otherwise, great fun all 'round!  As it has always been, in my experience (7 times in the last 8 years, now).

Awesome kick by Kai in the Plat A Final ... stroke, gain a half-seat, stroke & repeat ... ZOOM!

But our Diamond A Final (ahem!) was more exciting for the crowd, I'd bet!   

Dan

[Plum]

This year's Victoria Festival could have been better.  How you ask? - Well, I'll tell ya! 

1. The start officials really do need a better system of lining up the boats.  It took them quite a long time and some team members start to get restless.

2. The Paddler's Dance needs to be longer.  45 minutes isn't long enough.  It should have started earlier - but that would then mean that the races would have to start at 8am in order to finish by 4pm rather than 6pm! etc.

3. Several teams (mine included) had dinner reservations and therefore cannot wait around to find out the results and the race schedule for Sunday.  The results took too long to get posted.  The race schedule wasn't even posted by 6:30.

4. The goodie bags for paddlers should include more things than just coupons and flyers.  Sunblock samples would be a nice touch.  We had those many years ago - I think in 2003, so why can't we have those again?

5. Water officials need to be louder!  We had to start a race over again and I would not have known that if I was not looking right at the water official who, by this point was giving hand signals for us to hold the boat.  Our team was still paddling and I did not know why the other teams were stopping until I looked over at the safety boat! 

6. Race times on Saturday need to start earlier.  They say that it is for the out of town teams, etc.. however, in Nanaimo, the races start at around 8:30am... and I do believe that they have many out of town teams there as well.  Our first race was at 1:30-ish.  That makes for a LONG day especially if you are the manager or steersperson since they have to be at the managers/steersperson meeting at 9am! 

7. There should only be one gate for entry into the paddler's village rather than two.  The area needs to be wider as well.  It was difficult to get through when team was marshalling out of the village.

8. The race schedule should be done to allocate time for the "Harbour Ferry ballet", Coho, and other things like that.  The organizers of this year's race have been to the Victoria Festival for many years now and they know that there is traffic in the harbour. 

9. The dock crew should take the initiative to move teams along the dock.  This would make the flow of traffic along the dock smoother.  Also, a dock person had told me to enter a boat that was being unloaded at the same time.  That would have caused a potential accident if it was a "bumpy exit".  The dock is now much higher, so the potential for slipping while entering/exiting the boat is a lot higher than in previous years. 

10. The beer gardens should get kegs of beer similiar to how the VI Championships was done this year!

In conclusion, of all the festivals that I've been to this season, I would have to say that I would rank the VI Championships as my overall favourite and then Nanaimo in a close second... Victoria would be third.

[StraightLine]

Overall, it was a fairly good event and it seems as though the seeding was fairly well done.  I have some thoughts on things I saw and issues that have been raised by other posts.

1. What's the deal with not posting a race schedule for the entire weekend?  Is it a top secret document and the teams aren't allowed to know when race 24 or Gold Final A is scheduled?  In past years we have had a schedule that gives us the start times for every race for the weekend.  It helps alot when determining what time your team needs to be back at the tent.

2. Steers/Drummer Pool - if the festival wants to keep track of who is steering/drumming for which teams other than the team they're registered on, no problem.  In fact, I totally agree with it.  Just define the policy ahead of time and make sure everyone is aware of it.  I was steering for O2P and there was confusion on the docks while loading for their second race on Saturday about whether or not I needed to have wrist bands for both teams I was steering for.  I didn't, but this ended up delaying all of the teams at the dock while this issue was sorted out.

3. Paddlers Village - there is a reason why Victoria has a strict limit of 90 teams.  They cannot expand the paddlers village beyond the space it already takes.  There has to be enough clearance for emergency vehicles to pass between the village and the Habour Air terminal.  If you want a bigger entrance to the village then some tents are going to have to go. Are you going to volunteer your teams to miss the festival?

4. Lane and mid course markers - the only possible place I can see them placing lane markers is at the finish line which could be problematic if teams are lining up on the right side of the course to minimize drifting and lanes 1 and 2 have to steer on a diagonal to end up in their lane.  Lane markers at mid course and at the start line aren't going to happen because of the Coho.  The channel side start line bouy and the course boundary line behind the start line were move every time the Coho came and went. Can you imagine the delays if the water marshals had to reset lane markers every time the Coho passed through?

5. Scheduling around the Coho - would be nice as every one of TD Lightning's 4 races was delayed by the Coho leaving or arriving.  3 times we sat in that little bay and the fourth time we were held at the dock.  I'm just not sure how consistent the arrival times are for the Coho.  It's arrival times probably vary by +/- 15 minutes depending on loading, ocean conditions, etc.  Could be kind of hard to factor into a schedule.

6. Coordination between dock and water officals.  In one race for O2P, we were all lined on the start line, the starter was about to call the start and the dock officals sent the next heat across the course.  We had to back off the line and then it was a big mess trying to get the teams lined up and on the start line.  The dock officials never should have let the boats leave until the race was finished.

7. Race officials that are familiar with dragon boat racing.  Having the race director tell you at the managers' meeting that he's not familiar with your sport and doesn't understand some of the concepts does wonders for your confidence in the festival. 

8. Race Times - start the races earlier on Saturday, racing as late as 6pm is a little much. 

9) Start the races earlier, so that we can finish earlier...a lot of teams left because of ferry rides.

Puppy, are you saying you want the races started earlier than 8am on Sunday?  Somehow I don't see that happening.  I would hate to end up with a 7am start time after a night on the town (or with a baby waking you up at 3am for feeding )!

9. Sunday Schedule - Victoria has always been a little slow in posting the schedule for Sunday.  We arranged for someone to swing by, find our race times, and then phone/text message everyone.  Our hotel also printed off the schedule and had it at the front desk.

10. Marshalling at the start line.  The starter has to be more efficient on lining the boats up, but teams have to be more responsive.  I was out there for a few races where one boat would be lagging behind on coming up to the start line and the other four boats would have to back paddle because we drifted across the line.  If a team doesn't move up to the start line promptly, start the race without them.

12) Let teams get to the start line, in ANY ORDER....don't make the follow in boat order...just feels like we are kids...Some teams need to prep for the start of the race...let them warm up but agreed...keep them moving towards to the start line...

Said the person who repeatedly ignored the water marshal's instructions to bring his team's boat into the bay with the rest of the teams rather than trying to bum food off of the Victoria Star (and stay in the shadow of the vessel )  While I agree with your motives, Puppy, the fact of the matter is that if some team did that at Alcan, the organizers would come down on them hard.

As for sending the boats out in a specifc order, not a big deal.  There's enough time for a couple of practice starts and if the teams are going straight out to the start line, then having them in order simplifies things.  It should also result in a shorter period of time where boats are crossing the race course.

StraightLine

[puppy]

Thanks Straightline,

Lane and mid course markers - the only possible place I can see them placing lane markers is at the finish line which could be problematic if teams are lining up on the right side of the course to minimize drifting and lanes 1 and 2 have to steer on a diagonal to end up in their lane.  Lane markers at mid course and at the start line aren't going to happen because of the Coho.  The channel side start line buoy and the course boundary line behind the start line were move every time the Coho came and went. Can you imagine the delays if the water marshals had to reset lane markers every time the Coho passed through?

PreMarshalling starting markers can be added to the start line. There was a boundary ropes at the start line, that were never in the way of the Coho or the float planes.


Puppy, are you saying you want the races started earlier than 8am on Sunday?  Somehow I don't see that happening.  I would hate to end up with a 7am start time after a night on the town (or with a baby waking you up at 3am for feeding )!

Generally, most early races are setup for the Masters and/or Breast Cancer teams. However, I have never asked them, if they want to start early or do they even like the early start.  The other option, is to place the specialty races in the early morning...just a thought....

Said the person who repeatedly ignored the water marshal's instructions to bring his team's boat into the bay with the rest of the teams rather than trying to bum food off of the Victoria Star (and stay in the shadow of the vessel )  While I agree with your motives, Puppy, the fact of the matter is that if some team did that at Alcan, the organizers would come down on them hard.

Just to clarify a few points here....I did ask for permission from the water officials to stay by the vessel. I received an OK, provided I followed boat 2, to the start line. Secondly, because of the water conditions, starters low voice and inexperienced water officials, I went into the starting gates last. But in all cases, I waited to to all teams moved first, once their tail was lined up with the front of our boat, I then followed.

At Alcan, you can't do this, because, you enter a premarshalling area first, then you are given the command to bring it up...thus eliminating teams from entering the gates last. Agreed, I did take advantage of the open lane racing format.

As for sending the boats out in a specifc order, not a big deal.  There's enough time for a couple of practice starts and if the teams are going straight out to the start line, then having them in order simplifies things.  It should also result in a shorter period of time where boats are crossing the race course.

Agreed, but once the boats are on the COHO side of the course, let them do their thing, provided they are close to the start line.

[StraightLine]

PreMarshalling starting markers can be added to the start line. There was a boundary ropes at the start line, that were never in the way of the Coho or the float planes.

The boundary rope was moved by the Harbour Patrol boat the three times I was out on the water while the Coho came in and went, so I would expect that the festival is at their limits for markers and space past the start line.

StraightLine.

[boatbutt]

Well I am always one to stay relaxed under pressure...and given this was a learning experience for the organizers this festival....I managed to laugh off a lot of the errors this weekend. My favorite memory was of the woman official at the start line who was slouching in her chair, feet crossed and proceeded to call  "Would all boats ROW up to the line together!".......

[puppy]

Well I am always one to stay relaxed under pressure...and given this was a learning experience for the organizers this festival....I managed to laugh off a lot of the errors this weekend. My favorite memory was of the woman official at the start line who was slouching in her chair, feet crossed and proceeded to call  "Would all boats ROW up to the line together!".......

I thought I was the only one who saw this.....guess not.....hence, the water/race officials not having the experience to line up the teams effectively.