The Liechtenstein Princely Navy shows good form at the first 500m race of the season, but is thwarted by a conspiracy in the finals.

Following a rigorous four month fitness and paddle training schedule, the Navy 2012 was put to its first test at the Lamma 500. Five hundred meter races are – by definition – 500 meters long and thus about double the usual Stanley race distance. They require fitness, stamina and paddle consistency for two minutes flat. For the past month, all Sailors have been intensely trained to endure – in fact, to enjoy – two minutes of pain and exercise whenever and wherever they get the chance. All that physical and mental training was now put to the test.

As usual, we made our way to Lamma by junk and marked our presence prominently as usual with a flurry of flags, our inflatable Foster’s can as well as our massive new Navy banner. Obviously, “quiet and discreet” are not words used to describe the Navy!

We do like to make an impact on the shore, but we would like our paddling do our talking. We got our first chance in Race 12 – lined up against Hung On Marine, old rivals SMUGs and HSBC. The latter was not much of a concern, but obviously the Chinese marine team would be strong and it was our first race of the season against the SMUGs to see where we stand.

We were off to a good LiechtenStart, ready-and-reach and into a good chug. 500m is a long distance but our fitness training obviously showed good results as we kept up a steady pace with good POWER UP calls at 40 and 80 strokes. It was a clear two horse race against the Chinese team who started strong but we made up good ground towards the finish line. But our last twenty strokes were probably too frantic and messy and we couldn’t close the gap, finishing second in 1:59.12 behind Hung On in 1:57.65. The SMUGs finished more than five seconds behind us – so much for that.

Heat 2 would see us race next to another good benchmark: the BUZZ, who won the Open Men’s Cup here the previous year. SMUGs were also in the heat (but obviously no longer a threat) as were the DB Pirates. This time it was an even tighter two boat race (with the SMUGs desperately trying to join the party). The BUZZ seemed to have the more aggressive start, but we’ve kept up with them. Since all Sailors have clear instructions not to look at rival boats during a race and keep their heads in our boat it was hard to say where we stood, but it felt close the whole way. BUZZ crossed the line in first (2:02.34), Navy in a tight second place (2:02.68) and SMUGs in third (2:03.94).

We had thus collected 8 points from the two heats which ranked us 5th out of the twelve men’s teams and qualified us for the finals.

Meanwhile, we had for the first time signed up for the 1000m race that Lamma organizes every year. In the Open category, nine teams start in 10 second intervals, racing to the top of the race course and back. We were fourth in line and although we had some communication problems at the start, we set off for a fine race, quickly catching the Japanese boat in front of us. As we rounded the top mark we had caught up with Hung On Marine and HSBC in front, racing both to the finish. We thought we set a strong time (3:56.31), but apparently HKIPC (3:38.24), Stormies (3:48.79) and Lamma (3:54.47) had put us into fourth place overall.

Never mind about that – the key race was the 500m Open final, which after some delay finally got underway. Given our competitive form in the first two heats, we were confident of a strong finish. However, we were on the outside lane, which was a disadvantage. Instructions to the crew were clear: focus, keep it steady and keep it long. Six boats were off to a quick start, all powering down the race course. Our pace felt good, but the boat felt heavy. Maybe it was all those brownies we ate, or maybe the boat was really heavier (the organizer insists it wasn’t). We powered up, we stayed long, and we pushed on. But the front was a race between HKIPC, BUZZ and Hung On, which hung on (haha!) and eventually won in 1:59.72, while Lamma, Stormies and us were fighting at the rear (which we eventually brought home in 2:04.14).

Obviously we were not quite pleased with the end result and conspiracy theories about our boat allocation were soon floated among the crew. But a race is a race and anything can happen in a final. We showed good race pace throughout the day and made it clear that the Navy is a force to be reckoned with in 2012. We are nipping at the heels of the top teams (whose greatest nightmare is a loss to the crazy Navy from Liechtenstein) while already leaving others (notably SMUGs) clearly behind.

Be prepared for more!