Braving the most horrendous weather conditions imaginable, the Navy set out on a dark rain-swept morning to compete at the first dragon boat event to be held on Lamma island. What promised to be a highly competitive 500m race instead turned into a massive Wet T-Shirt Competition!

Never shy to venture into uncharted waters, the Liechtenstein Princely Navy committed itself early in the season to participate at the first ever Lamma International Dragon Boat Festival. The event promised a similar format to the HKIPC race in Deep Water Bay with a wide field of competitive teams, including an overseas contingent from Dubai.

In the days leading up to the event, the organizers seemed to have everything under control – except the weather. The forecast for Race Day – and indeed the entire week thereafter – from the Admiralty’s Meteorological Office showed a black cloud, rain and a lighting bolt! And if that wasn’t bad enough, Hong Kong’s southern beaches were under siege by a ‘Red Tide’, a nasty and unhealthy-looking accumulation of some toxic algae.

Fortunately, all Navy personnel are trained in chemical warfare and as such the Red Tide was only a minor irritant. The unrelenting thunderstorms and lightning the night prior to the race were more of a worry, but the Admiralty had little choice but to proceed with the mission on Sunday morning given various commitments already made.

And thus a less than enthusiastic crew – but nevertheless almost complete – assembled at 0800hrs at Aberdeen Boat Club for a short passage across the Lamma channel. As we limped across the sea in a poorly motorized junk, the sky actually brightened somewhat, allowing faint hopes for a dry day of paddling.

The race course was set along the seawall of the HK Electric power station, with a few teams lining up alongside in their junks and the rest setting up camp on the beach. The first challenge of the day was getting the crew to the beach, since – for unexplained reasons – the available speedboats refused to carry anybody to the shore. It was thus decided to ferry the landing party by row boat in small groups of three and four. Lt. Streun and Sailor Ruedi led the way, followed by Sailor Robin who demonstrated his navigational skills by zigzagging his way to the beach in a random course. (Note: Liechtenstein Naval Code article #43-B: “The shortest distance from start to finish is a straight line.”)

The entire crew eventually made it to the shore in time for our first heat against Lingnan University, Freudenberg & Vilene, Hong Kong Electric, the North Lamma Fishermen and Castle Peak. As we headed out to the starting line the red tide was not the only pollutant we encountered, as we paddled our way through various other color variants and rubbish of all sorts.

The start could best be described as a Nascar-style rolling start with the waves pushing all boats forward. Sailor Reto was busy bailing on the “READY!” signal and just managed to catch the first stroke as we powered up our LiechtenStart. By twenty strokes CTA Charlie’s paddle got caught on a rope but fortunately Lt Streun led on. The Navy settled into a good chug piece before losing ground to some of the stronger teams in the final 200m. Eventually we beat only Lingnan University, but at least by a good margin. Better fifth then last!

Not long after we were back on the dry ground of our junk, the weather started to deteriorate with more rain and bigger swells. All race activity was halted for a considerable amount of time before we detected some warm-up action on the beach. Word was that our second heat would be scheduled shortly and we moved the troops back on shore (this time by motorized landing craft). But the rain only got worse and in order to prevent hypothermia from setting in and to keep spirits high the crew engaged in a rigorous dancing and singing exercise. Despite our best efforts to appease the weather gods (or maybe because of it…) the conditions only worsened.

Eventually, the entire event was called off and the Liechtenstein Princely Navy was declared the overall winner in all categories – especially singing and dancing. All that was left to do was to finish our large supply of Foster’s fuel and safely head home in our rickety junk. By the time we had crossed the Lamma channel in very rough seas, several Sailors were more pale then usual and in desperate need for solid ground and fresh air.