Our first race of the 2013 season was at the lovely Sha Tin Riviera, on the pristine Shing Mun River, where the only sign of life is the e-coli bacteria bubbling on the surface of the water.

It was unseasonally cold, hence we raced in our widely admired long-sleeve black ops shirts, that provide some additional protection against not only the cold but also against whatever it is that floats down that river.

Sha Tin is a small boat race (10 paddlers) over 200m, hence we assembled a small crew of fit paddlers with good training attendance and put them under the command of Deputy Chief Racing Officer Dan, threw in our brand new drummer - New Megan - and mercenary helmsman Kum Shing and we had ourselves a race crew.

Conveniently, the first heat was only at 1310hrs, allowing a lie-in and a bit more recovery time from our previous day's training program. The Open Championship featured 24 teams, out of which only nine had an English name. Hence our first heat was against nothing but Chinese characters (in the name and in the boats). It was an exciting race to watch: although our start looked slow and sluggish against the light Chinese speedboats, we were soon back in the race and fighting for the lead against lane 4 and 2. The finish was neck-on-neck but it appeared that 2 and 4 had us by a nose length. Indeed, the official result confirmed Yee King (lane 2, 58.08) the winner, followed by Hing Yee (lane 4, 58.25) and the Navy in third in 58.44.

With only first and second going through to the semi-final, we found ourselves in the dreaded repechage: win or go home! On the upside, we would at least keep warm by having another race to paddle in! Also, the odds were clearly in our favour - the other teams were all over two seconds slower in the first heat, i.e. this race was to be ours!

And in classic Navy style it was: cool, controlled, composed - from start to finish in 60 strokes. Except for POFC Martin, who lost his footing in the Fast Ten and squirmed around in the back row for several strokes. But elsewhere on the boat the power came through in spades, surging the boat forward and across the line in first place in 58.98.

At 1630hrs came the hour of reckoning: semi-final against some of the finest teams in Hong Kong (we guessed, since we could't read their names...). In fact, translations revealed that it was Yee King and Hing Yee again, plus West Island Fire Services (hot! They did a 57.55 in the first heat) and "Overheat" (event hotter, at 56.66 in the first heat).

And just as the Repechage was a classic example of utter Navy dominance, the semi final turned into a complete Naval trashing by the assembled Chinese armada. It was a tight race - for the first four teams, and then it was us in fifth, about a boat length behind. The firemen clinched the race in 56.45 while we came home in 58.70. In other words, while our time stayed more or less the same from the earlier heats, the Chinese teams found another second somewhere out there. Lamma, the only other gweilo team that made the semi-finals, also came last in their semi-final in 58.52. The firemen went on to win the Open final in 54.72, i.e. almost another two seconds faster than their semi-final time!

Ah well, time to break into our newly sponsored fuel supply from Singha!

But anyway, it was a good start for the season and nothing to be ashamed of: we performed strongly and competitively in our first two races (to plenty of "waahh - look at Liechtenstein go!" in Chinese from the shore) but once we got to the sharp end of the competition, it became almost a different game. We are consistent, which is great, but the top Chinese teams are faster and lighter and they find another second or two somewhere while we have not yet found the magic formula to keep pace with them.

Let's hope our new Singha fuel strategy will change this over time...

Click here for full results.

See these YouTube clips of our First Heat and Semi Final