The first open Salford Charity Dragon Boat Festival was held on Sunday 20th June 2010 at Salford Quays in a day of glorious sunsine where twelve teams supporting nine different charities met to compete. For each team, this was their first chance at dragon boating, so there were a lot of nervous people milling around wondering just what they had got themselves into!

Dragon Boating is a sport that originated in China some 2.000 years ago when fishermen raced their boats across the Mi Lo River to rescue the body of their beloved poet, Qu Yuan who had drowned.

The sport came to this country in the early 90’s and involves crews of up to seventeen people (sixteen paddlers and a drummer), the aim being for the whole team to work together in unison, paddling (and drumming) as one in order to get the boat down the course and over the finishing line as fast as possible.

Raced over a distance of around 200 meters, each team was given a minimum of three timed races during the day, which gave the teams ample time to work with the instructors and use dragon boating as a way to develop team building and team trainings.

Once all three qualifying races were completed, each team’s fastest single race time was used for qualification into the Grand Final, which was one last race between the four fastest teams on the day. This was an exciting race to the finish to determine which team would become: Dragon Boat Champions of Salford 2010.

The day started with a Team Captain’s briefing at 10:00 where an outline of the day was covered, as well as useful information for the crews such as toilet locations and catering facilities. Once completed, the first four teams were called up to be briefed. Crew safety is something we take very seriously, so when a team is called to be briefed, every member of that team (regardless of whether they were paddling in the first race or not) had to attend.

The briefing is partly an instruction on the various commands the helm might give and how the team is to respond, partly a safety instruction on how to stop the boat capsizing (thankfully quite rare) and what to do in the event of a capsize and partly a demonstration on paddling technique and getting the best out of the day.

Once the briefing was over, each crew member at the briefing was issued a wrist band, which they then had to wear for the rest of the day. The wrist band signified to the event staff that the crew member had been briefed and was now safe to go on the dragon boat..

Dragon boating is quick to pick up and very progressive in nature. The helms each have extensive dragon boating experience (often ten years or more) and each want their team to win their race! The success of a team is reliant on two key factors: Teamwork and timing.

Teamwork because what the team is trying to achieve is everyone in the boat to paddle in unison. Timing because too slow (or too fast) a stroke rate will usually result a slower time!

Pictures from the day

Team pictures can be see below and also on the webpage of the charity they were supporting. To see the pictures below better, click a picture to enlarge.

 

Challenge Races:

For companies or organisations that have two or more teams entering, we will endeavour to organise (where possible) a Challenge Race in Round 3 and seed the teams in such a way so they do not meet during rounds one & two. This then gives the teams the opportunity to experience several ‘training’ rounds before their big event.

We recommend any company or organisation with teams competing in a Challenge Race get trophy shields organised for their teams. Come the award ceremony, we will then invite the most senior member of the company in attendance to come up and present the shield to their winning team, which would make a great photo opportunity for the company website / newsletter.