Despite plenty of government funding, the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Race remains the worst organized dragon boat event in Hong Kong. It used to be the in-official “World Cup” of dragonboat racing, but under the inapt leadership of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Association it has deteriorated into a meaningless affair in a poor location without spectators.

Last year’s International Race was held in Tsim Sha Tsui East, which at least provided a spectacular background in the form of the Hong Kong skyline and was visited by many tourists and locals alike. In 2006, the races returned to the HKDBA’s training base at the Shing Mun River in Sha Tin. The term “river” is used somewhat loosely here, as it is be better described as an artificially straight and highly polluted stretch of water through which the occasional dead fish or human body part may float.

While the Navy capsized three times in the Hong Kong harbor last year, we made every effort to avoid a similar fate in Sha Tin.

The one fond memory of Sha Tin is that it was the site of the Navy’s first victory in a race situation in one of the preliminary rounds in 2004. This is even more remarkable given the fact that the International Race is over a distance of 500 meters, which is about 250 meters beyond the Navy’s optimal radius of operation.

It is arguably much easier and more efficient to organize a race in Sha Tin, but left in the incapable hands of the HKDBA the event was already over an hour behind schedule on Saturday before the first race even went under way. They also lost all our access passes and listed our team in the program as “The liechtenstein Princely Navy Silvan Coluni”.

While the Navy was the only European team in the past two years, in 2006 we were joined by a contingent from Italy, whose paddlers looked very much out of place and probably more at home on a soccer pitch. Then there was one highly competitive team from New York, the Philippine National Team as well as the crowd-favorite Bugsay Team from Boracay followed by a handful of seriously fit mainland Chinese teams and a breast cancer team from Singapore. All together about 15 “international” teams. They may just as well call it the “Greater China and Bits of Asia Races”.

The objective for Saturday was simple: to set a qualifying time which would determine in which championship (Cup, Plate, Bowl) we would compete on Sunday. Originally scheduled for 11:20am, our race eventually went under way at around 1:30pm, against the HKDBA Training Team, a couple of Chinese teams and the Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation. The fastest times set so far in the race were just under two minutes and the Navy was determined to put in a good time to avoid an early race start on Sunday morning.

With a crew of 18 that was short some of our strongest paddlers and included two Sailors borrowed from the Bugsay team, the Navy tried its best to maintain a good race speed over the 500m course. However, the pace set by Admiral Colani and Lieutenant Streun in the front row was clearly too fast and not sustainable over the entire race distance. Thus, the Navy lost momentum towards the latter part of the race and crossed the line in 2:10.37 – making us the 69th fastest team out of 72 and putting us squarely into the Bowl Championships.

There were further bad news on Sunday morning as another core member of the Navy – Sailor Martin – had to withdraw from the race due to food (banana?) poisoning overnight. In addition, Sailor Joerg was late due to a non-communication of the race time, forcing the Navy to make additional recruitment calls at the Bugsay Team (fortunately they do look like typical southern Liechtensteinians!)

For a change, the race was not more than half an hour behind schedule as we lined up for our first heat of the day against a host of local teams, including the Hong Kong Police Dragon Boat Club and the aptly named “Fat Dragons”. Having finally secured a helmsman (which the HKDBA wrongly claimed we did not book), the objective was to come first or second and thus avoid having to go through the repechage. We missed our target again, coming in somewhere in the midfield.

The repechage was equally competitive, but at least we managed a decent time that put us into the “B” final, which was slightly better than ending up in the worst-of-all “C” final. As boat 1 was jumping the start of the “B” final we enjoyed some additional exercise in lining up our boat twice. When the race eventually went under way we maintained a good pace and rhythm, but still managed to finish only 5th or 6th (the official result has still not been posted by the HKDBA!).

Sha Tin was another reminder that 500m is not the Navy’s preferred distance and obviously our training program was not geared towards such a distance. Despite our best efforts throughout the weekend, the result was far from satisfactory.

In the true Liechtenstein spirit, however, the crew nevertheless celebrated the Navy’s non-victory with plenty of Foster’s. The post-race atmosphere was further lit up by the drums of the Bugsay Team and exchanges of plenty of cheap Filipino rum. The Italians were also desperate to exchange their plain and boring shirts against our highly sophisticated and colorful Navy uniforms, which has become a regular feature at most races.

The Admiralty would like to remind all Sailors – and Lieutenant Streun in particular – that the exchange of a Navy-issued uniform is only allowed with the specific authorization of the Admiralty. Violators of this rule will be charged with collusion with the enemy or treason, which carries a maximum penalty of No Fosters For Three Seasons.