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Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

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[rb]

There was one very slow boat used in the heats on Saturday and another one in not very good condition either.

It was recognized Saturday morning that Boat 4 in the even heats hadn't been cleaned. It added something like 10 seconds. Lane 4 was for the seeded teams in the morning (who the organizers thought to be the top 16 teams) and the first place finishers in the afternoon. A lot of those teams that raced in that boat ended up with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes even though they were the strongest team in the heat.

Pacific Reach raced in the slow boat in the morning and had a 2:20. In the afternoon in a clean boat they raced 2:08. Dragon Hearts Team Ultimate was seeded in their heat but in the slow boat had a 2:32 and a 3rd place finish.

Unfortunately the result is that teams are not in the proper division. Faster teams in lower divisions is a shame. Even if your team didn't race in the slow boat you're still affected by having the wrong teams in your division.

[kryssee]

We raced in boat 4 the whole weekend with no problems. As a matter of fact, we placed first in both races Sat., Sun. morning and placed 3rd (Platinum A..woohoo!) Sun. afternoon. As of this morning, we had the fastest women's team time of the regatta from our first race on Sat. We weren't told anything about a slow boat until shortly before the final, but honestly did not notice anything wrong. Too bad for the teams it affected.

[Salty Wet]

I was told that the boats were pulled out of the water after saturday's races and were still dirty.  That was why Pac Reach and other teams in lane 4 were affected on saturday.  Can anyone clarify?

[mustbecrazy]

There's more to the controvery than simply slow vs. fast boats....altho' I suppose related to it.  In an attempt to be fair, the race officials tried to balance the results by docking 5 seconds from heats done in the "faster" boats.  As well, they used some formula whereby the times in each heat were averaged to help determine seeding.  So if you were in a "fast" boat in a slow field your average would have been seriously affected, which is exactly what happen to our team.  Where you placed in a heat didn't stand on it's own.  It was also a matter of fast vs. slow boats and the fastest and slowest times in your heat.  Our team was pretty p***ed!!!  At the end of racing on Sat. we had the 8th fastest time but because of this "formula, we ended up in the Jade semis.  We were happy enough with our gold in the Jade final but that wasn't consolation enough because we should never have ended up in this division in the first place.  We are definitely not a team that sandbags but it could certainly be seem like that if you weren't in the know!

I know that race officials heard much...from our team as well as others.  There seemed to be a willingness to hear us out and to make improvments for next year.  I appreciated their time on a busy race day.  However, being prevented from racing against those who are usually our competition was a disappontment.

 In a perfect world we'd paddle in boats of similiar speed.  Failing that, the formula used really needs to be addressed.  I suggest that in a 6 boat heat, the 1st and last times get thrown out and an average be determined from the remaining 4.  These times would give a more accurate picture of the competition within a heat.  I'd also really like to know all the factors that are part of this formula.  Maybe then we'd understand why where we finish in a given heat isn't enough. 

[Secret Weapon]

Blue number 4 on Saturday was defintely a 'slow boat'.  After complaints blue number 4 was moved to lane 6 for the Sunday finals (poor lane 6).  So to be clear no one in lane 4 on Sunday had a slow boat for the finals. For paddlers to pay a premium price to enter this festival premium boats should be made available and if not at least clean ones!  That is my only complaint regarding this weekend.  Nice job otherwise 

[reprocessed]

There's more to the controvery than simply slow vs. fast boats....altho' I suppose related to it.  In an attempt to be fair, the race officials tried to balance the results by docking 5 seconds from heats done in the "faster" boats.  As well, they used some formula whereby the times in each heat were averaged to help determine seeding.  So if you were in a "fast" boat in a slow field your average would have been seriously affected, which is exactly what happen to our team.  Where you placed in a heat didn't stand on it's own.  It was also a matter of fast vs. slow boats and the fastest and slowest times in your heat. 

I have spent my fair share of time behind a finish line computer, and for the life of me, I cannot understand how officials can ever be justified in changing or docking time off races arbitrarily after they are completed.  To me that is a completely ridiculous slap in the face to the competition involved, no matter what factors (like perhaps a slow boat) seem to be causing a 'problem'.  You just don't do that.  If indeed it is true that that did happen, that is a shame.

My crew was affected by the slow boat in the first heat, and I found out about it on Saturday night.  We were disappointed, but realized that it was a good explanation for what happened.  We also discussed the fact that you can't fix something like that after the fact, because there are too many variables involved.  The crews pay an exorbitant amount of money for 4 races, and as such, the onus is on the race organizers to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen in the first place.  What does it take to clean a boat off?   

I tend to think that looking at the way it all played out, no corrections were made to race times, as we saw strong teams all the way down in jade division.  I hope that is the case, and if not, let's just hope that kind of 'fixing' of problems doesn't happen at any other festival that crew officiates. 

[Zavion]

I was hoping that the weekend up there would go smoothly and the event would show some improvements over the past few years.  From reading the posts it looks like they messed up again. 

Unfortunately it is things like this plus all of the other un-addressed issues that keep teams away.  I know of a few teams who do not go there anymore (mine included).  With the amount they charge you would thing they could fix some of the issues they have each year as well as making sure that things like this do not happen.  How tough is it to make sure the boats are clean?

[alcanranker]

We raced in boat 4 the whole weekend with no problems.

You must have raced in the faster boats (BTW race 1 were the fast boats) and if you won that one then you were in race 25 which were also the faster boats (I know this since I watched every race).  Your team was lucky then .  All champioship races were in the faster boats also.

Interestinlgly enough after the washing of boats and the  reconfig on Sunday morning the "slower" boat heats were much better, just look at the results.

BTW, great racing by your team!

[kryssee]

Thanks! We've had a great season! (we were something like 31st last year..this year 3rd..lol) I suppose when you're lucky enough to miss the "slow boats" then everything is roses on the race course! It would be really great if there was a regatta with 12 boats of the exact same weight, speed, etc...then no controversy!

[puppy]

Hi everyone,


A quote from "Alcanranker"

Just to clarify a couple of points:

a.  Watersedge was not responsible for equipment at this event.  The equipment was sourced, delivered, and setup by others, Watersedge was strictly race management.

However, we will take these comments seriously and pass them to the Kelowna Festival for next year.

Thanks

[boatbutt]

If I were part of the "management," I would have checked on the boats to make sure the event I was "managing" went smoothy and that there would be no potencial issues. Like tying up your shoelaces before the big sprint!

[puppy]

I would agree with your comment, but when we inspected the boats on Saturday night, there were no "dirt" on the bottom of the boats....

[boatbutt]

So then pls clarify? What was the controversy?....I keep reading there were dirty boats....maybe they were water logged?

[ConfusedAsian]

I'm not sure about boat 4 being dirty, but I know other boats were dirty too and not only on saturday. I know because I felt under the boats and not heard it second hand. I just assume the best that all boats were dirty and the races were as fair as they could be. That being said these problems should be looked at and taken care of for next year festival.

I would agree with your comment, but when we inspected the boats on Saturday night, there were no "dirt" on the bottom of the boats....

Just to clarify because I don't mean to disrespectful anyone, but was all boats checked, because I was quite certain the boats I felt under was dirty. I could peel off green gunk from the bottem of it.
Was a little surprise to see kelowna providing their own dragonboats, when I heard falsecreek was bringing up 6-16's

[rb]

The problem with Boat 4 in the even heats was discovered half way through Saturday morning.

Water's Edge was going to clean it right away, then decided to wait until lunch, then decided to leave it until the end of the day.

At the end of the day it was cleaned along with the other Fraser Valley boat. These 2 boats were in lane 3 and 4 in the even heats on Satuday. For Sunday they moved them to lanes 1 and 6.

That was the best decision in this siutation. They cleaned them to make them as even as possible and put them in the outside lanes.

The way to improve this situation is obviously to make sure the boats are clean before the races start. If it happens that races start with a boat that isn't clean, the best thing to do is to take action AS SOON AS IT'S DISCOVERED.

The early Saturday morning races had already been run, there was nothing that could have been done about those results. The only mistake was that they decided to leave it as is and let 11 more teams race in it before they fixed it. The seeding race results were affected more than they had to be.

If I raced in an unclean boat in the early morning I wouldn't want them to leave it for other teams to try to keep it "fair", I'd prefer that they clean it right away so that the remaining races are actually fair.