The Chester Charity Dragon Boat Festival 2009
Sunday June 14th 2009 started with around 500 competitors gathering in the near perfect conditions of bright blue skies, light winds and glorious warm sunshine to compete in the 2009 Chester Dragon Boat Festival. Now in its fifth year, the event has grown steadily from just nine teams in 2004 to its present size of 20 teams and is now one of the largest dragon boat events of its type in the UK. For most of the teams, this was their first experience in a dragon boat – not that it mattered because no previous dragon boat experience is necessary as full training is given on the day.
Dragon Boating is a sport that originated in China some 2.000 years ago but came to this country in the early ’90. Involving crews of up to seventeen people (sixteen paddlers and a drummer), the aim is 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 250 meters, each team is given a minimum of three timed races during the day, which gives 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 are completed, the festival culminates in an exciting four boat race to the finish between the four teams with the fastest individual race times to determine who would be, Dragon Boat Champions of Chester 2009.
Safety first!
Dragon Boat Instructor Danny Windsor handing out safety wrist bands to the HMS Albion Sailors.
The wrist bands signify that the team members have attended the team briefing and are now safe to go in the boats.
The Dragon Boat Events team are very strict on safety and no one is allowed into the dragon boats without their wrist band.
With a total of fourteen different charities being supported in this year's festival, every team gets into the day in different ways. Some often come in fancy dress whilst other indulge in a spot of face painting!
Where possible, we like to include as part of the program gave an extra dimension to the day. Challenge Races are for any company or organisation that has two or more teams entering. We then plan the race schedule so the teams do not meet in the early rounds, thus giving each team maximum opportunity to get as good as possible before their race. By incorporating Challenge Races as part of the program, we can make the day even more interesting by having an inter-company competition within the event.
This year we had three Challenge Races:
Race 28 was the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology Challenge Race, Race 29 was the EON-UK.COM Challenge Race Race 30 (and the last qualifying race of the day) was the AVOX.INFO Challenge RaceMore about these races can soon be found on the page.
The 2009 Challenge Races
Race 28: The ClatterbridgeCentre for Oncology Challenge Race was a race between The Photons in the blue boat and The Pirates of the Dee in Boat 1.
This race was even more meanful as both teams were made up of staff from the Clatterbridge Centre who each gave up their day in order to take part in the dragon boat festival. More about these teams can be found on the charity pages.
Race 29: The EON-UK.COM Challenge Race between CHP Evolution in the near boat and Connahs Quay d4e in Boat 4.
Race 30: The Avox.info Challenge Race between the Avox Tigers in the near boat and the Avox Dragons in Boat 2.
Interested in putting in a team or two for next year? Register your interest by clicking the email link below or download the 2010 entry forms by clicking here.
