The Liechtenstein Princely Navy’s first participation at the Mui Wo Dragon Boat Race can only be described as a complete wash-out! On the plus side, we can rightly claim never to have been beaten there!

The Admiralty had signed up for the Mui Wo Dragon Boat Race as an ideal preparation for the Stanley Championships, since the race is over a 300m distance in wooden boats. These are the same conditions as in Stanley and the race is held less than a week prior to our main event.

However, it appears that any race the Navy decides to attend for the first time is met with atrocious weather conditions. This was true for our first outing to Boracay in 2006 as well as our first participation at the inaugural Lamma 500 in 2007.

As the Navy hunkered down on Silvermine Beach in Lantau Island, trying to shelter its tent from the wind and unending rain, it was clear that this would be a very wet day. With the strong monsoon and thunderstorm warning signal hoisted by the Hong Kong Observatory, the race was behind schedule by an hour before long.

At 1130hrs it was finally time for the Navy to head for battle: fully warmed-up, we bailed the incoming boat bone dry, jumped in and made ourselves comfortable. Lt Charlie was itching to get going and shouted at the front to start paddling, but the boat boys held us back. Just then, the organizers announced that the event was suspended for an hour. At 1230hrs it was decided that the race would continue, but with 12 paddlers instead of 20. This decision was instantly greeted by an even greater torrential downpour which led most teams to abandon the beach and head back to drier lands. The Admiralty thus called it a day and declared the Foster’s supply open!