The Liechtenstein Princely Navy embarks on its first mission to Singapore and brings home… lots of happy memories!

The Liechtenstein Princely Navy – naval defenders of a land-locked alpine nation – has always looked beyond its natural borders for action and purpose. Having been based in Hong Kong for over ten years, our proud Navy has ventured as far afield as Macau, Bangkok, Boracay and Sha Tin, but never before to Hong Kong’s closest rival – Singapore. Hence this Singapore Mission to participate at the 30th Singapore River Regatta – was way overdue!

Held in the midst of our offseason, the Mission gave willing Sailors a perfect excuse to get back in shape, pack their Navy shorts as the cool Hong Kong winter approaches and head south! With the races held smack in the middle of Boat Quay, the Admiralty established base at The Fullerton Hotel, with a pool view of the finish line, while Sailors of lesser rank double-bunked at the rather fragile-sounding Porcelain Hotel. Such are the perks of high office in the Navy…

Two days of paddling action would see us race small boats (10 paddlers) on Saturday and big boats (20 paddlers) on Sunday. Some 14 paddlers also joined a practice session on Friday afternoon on the murky Singapore reservoir… a body of water that makes the Chao Phraya river look (and taste) like Evian Water.

Strategically speaking, we put our hopes on Saturday as we would have no problem fielding a strong team of 10 paddlers. But say what you want about Singapore, they are certainly no slouches when it comes to dragonboating and we were up against some formidable competition. The race course was a very short 200m – just the way we like it, the shorter the better! The boats on the other hand were more cramped then anything we’ve ever paddled in. There was barely any room to fold your legs into – how SOF James ever got into his seat will forever remain a mystery.

But eventually we all folded in, headed out to the starting line and powered down the course for our first heat: a LiechtenStart plus 60 strokes – a minute of work. We raced against the Spanish Armada and ITE Dragon Boat Club and crossing the line we confidently assumed we had won. But although we had a super aggressive start, we loosened up too much at the beginning of our chug and the competition slowly ate back into that advantage. We were qualified second in 1:01.50, three hundredth behind ITE in 1:01.47.

We blamed it on the tiny boats and a potentially home-biased finish line judge, but it was still the seventh fastest time of all the heats and so we would get a chance to redeem ourselves in the quarter finals. Swapping crews for fresh paddlers, the Admiral watched the next race from the comforts of his swimming pool where a strong performance still only translated into a third place finish. Nevertheless, another strong time meant we still made the semi finals and after a carbo-loading lunch (and the obligatory tropical downpour which washed more rubbish into the Singapore River) we headed back out to the starting line.

“ARE YOU READY?” (always!) – “ATTENTION!” (sit down, Martin!) – “GOOOOOOO!” We threw it all in one more time, aiming for a top two slot that would get us in the final, but alas it was not enough. We came third once more in 1:01.49 – one hundredth faster than our first heat. Luckily our Foster’s (kindly and enthusiastically provided by the local distributor – many thanks!) was already well chilled and we thus retreated from the action for the day. And by “action” we mean of course the paddling action, as there were unconfirmed reports of plenty more “action” at unconfirmed locations and unconfirmed times later that night that could – if properly confirmed – be construed as detrimental to the paddling action the following day.

Which started at 0800hrs on Sunday. Big boats meant 20 paddlers, 19 of which reported for duty out of which about 1.3 were officially cleared as “fit for duty” by the team doctor. Given the lack of options, another 16.7 Sailors were given double rations of Thai Red Bull (way too sweet and under-carbonated!) so that we could line up HSH Hangover for the National Premier Open against the British Dragons and two other competitors for a minute of action (which according to unconfirmed reports was longer than the unconfirmed “action” an unidentified Sailor going by the initials M.A.S. enjoyed the previous night).

The result of that minute of action however was the same (UNSATISFACTORY!) and resulted yet again in a third place.

So to the repechage we went shortly after, failure at which would be dire: elimination from the competition. So we took appropriate measures and preparations (more ice to chill the Foster’s faster!) and headed out once more. The plan was simple: stick to the aggressive LiechtenStart, add more power to the chug and go LONG for the final stretch where the races are won and lost.

Paddling and shouting from the rear of the ship, it looked like it came together pretty well. Aside from a somewhat messy early part of the chug we put a lot of power down that nudged us forward in absolute and relative terms, to the extent that we actually overtook boat 4 which had a much more explosive start. But boats 1 and 2 (clearly in the faster lanes!) had the upper hand and so it was a third place once more. Hence, we found ourselves in a position where quite a few Sailors could take an early flight home while the rest enjoyed those very nicely chilled Foster’s well before noon!

All in all, it was a great mission. The paddling was more competitive than expected and it showed that Singapore’s dragon boat community is alive and well. Next time, we’ll come better prepared – we’ll bring less ice!

P.S. The Admiralty wishes to acknowledge the great work by LCDR Beat Erne who led the administrative/registration side of the mission as well as Singapore Station Officer Marcus Schreiber who attended to matters on the ground – including the very essential (and ample) ice supply!