The Chester Dragon Boat Festival

Welcome to the 'new look' Chester Dragon Boat Festival website. Dragon Boating is a fun way for people to raise money for charity, the emphasis on the day is very much about team building and competition and is ideal for experienced crews and complete beginers alike. Dragon Boating is very quick to pick up so by round two, even novice crews find they are able to compete with teams that have done it before.

How it works:

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About the day:

The event will start at 10:00 am with a Team Captain's briefing after which the first teams will be called up to be briefed. The Grand Final is expected to be around 3:30pm. For safety reasons all team members must attend the briefing and safety wrist bands will be issued after each briefing. These safety wrist bands must be worn by each competitor throughout the day and signifies to the instructors in each race the crew member has been briefed and understands the commands they will use in the dragon boat - as well as what to do in the unfortunate event of a capsize (thankfully quite rare). All crew members will need to wear their bands for the rest of the day and show their bands to their helm each time they get into the boat otherwise they will be deemed to not have been briefed and therefore will not be allowed on to the 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 want you to win your 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!

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's website or newsletter.

Charities Page:

For every charity that enters or has one or more teams entering to support them in this year's festival, will produce a mini website for that charity within this website, accessible via the 'Charities' button on the menu bar above. On that page we will give information about the charity, what they do and also a link to their website and will make available a downloadable entry pack into the festival from each charity's webpage.
We will also feature pictures from the event of each team that enters to support that charity on that charity's webpage.

Other Open Festivals:

The Salford Dragon Boat Festival:      www.sdbf.co.uk 
The North Wales Dragon Boat Festival:   www.nwdbf.co.uk

Each dragon boat is forty foot long and can hold a maximum 18 people at one time. Seventeen people (eight pairs of paddlers and a drummer) are made up of team members, whilst the eighteenth person is a qualified helm with the dragon boat events company.
For a team to enter, the team must support a nominated charity and pay a team entry fee to the organisers. Each person in the team must raise at least £50 in sponsorship for their team’s charity.
Team sizes can range from fourteen people plus a drummer to twenty people (including reserves) and the team entry fee is the same per team irrespective of final team numbers.
No previous experience is necessary as full instruction is provided on the day.
Both men and women can compete on equal footing.
Dragon boat races are run throughout the day over a short course of around 250 metres and each team in the festival is given a guaranteed (weather permitting) three timed races. After each race, the results are put up on our leader board so each team can compare their times throughout the day.
When all three rounds of racing have been completed, each team’s single fastest time is taken and used for qualification into the Grand Final, which will be a race to the finish using all the available dragon boats in one last, dramatic race to the line!
The day finishes with our award ceremony where trophies are presented to the Captain's of the top three teams and specially cast, First, Second and Third place 'Olympic style' Dragon Boat Medals are awarded to each member of the top three teams.

www.sdbf.co.uk

www.nwdbf.co.uk