Friday, 21 June - On a day when temperatures hit 35 degrees and the Hang Seng Index fell by 120 points, we decided the most sensible thing to do is to go for a paddle in the harbor – in the HKIDBR Small Boat Competition, to be precise.

As always, we established base in the lovely Empire Center car park – clean, dry, warm and a bargain at HKD 24 per hour! We were fortunate to be able to assemble a strong crew of ten paddlers plus a gracious substitute and were thus looking forward to some competitive paddling on what is undoubtedly the most spectacular dragon boat race course on the planet: aim the dragonhead at the Bank of China and kick butt for 250m!

At 1200hrs sharp – with the sun burning down intensely from a cobalt blue sky (take that, Singapore!) – we lined up for the first heat of the first race of the first event of the first day in the first lane, aiming for first place! Following what appears the new start procedure in Hong Kong (ARE YOU READY – ATTENTION – GO! And then the gun goes off) we were off to a flying start, good transition into the chug, but losing a bit of power between 30 to 40, finding rhythm again and heading to the line in around 65 strokes. It was fourth place in 1’05.36, behind Fire Services West (1:03.29), Shatin Fishermen (1:03.57) and – somewhat annoyingly – Stormy Dragon (1:04.80), but ahead of the Buzz (1:07.23).

Shower, lunch, repechage. Focus on the chug, pull good water with a straight paddle and keep great form throughout. That was the plan and it came together nicely as we finished in second (1:02.86), just a nose length behind Shum Woo Dragon Boat Association (1:02.55), but crucially, ahead of Stormies (1:04.37) and the Buzz (1:04.43).

And thus we would all meet again in the final. With the Typhoon Signal 1 hoisted by now, we got the benefit of nice tail wind, but that was negated by what felt like three different tides shifting beneath our boat. Water was very choppy and hence we did our best to focus on a stable boat, strong core and clean race.

It came together beautifully and we had a superb race against a formidable field of competitors: the Shatin Fishermen to our immediate right took off like a Mainland tour group at a free buffet, chased by the Excel Seafood Bubble Dragon (huh?) and the fire brigade (in fact two fire brigades – the FSD as well as Fire West). But the Navy hung in there, reeling the fishermen back in while overtaking Fire Services West. The fishermen clearly won it (59.60), Seafood was second (1:00.53), Fire Service Department came third (1:01.09) while we just missed out on a nice trophy in fourth (1:01.36). Stormies was 6th (1:02.76) and Buzz brought in the rear in 8th (1:07.05).

Saturday, 22 June – Some days turn out quite differently from what you plan or expect. Today was one of those…

Thanks to ultra slow moving Tropical Storm Bebinca, the Hong Kong Observatory raised the Typhoon Signal 3 overnight, causing all morning races to be cancelled. Hence, all Sailors got a lie-in – except those with small children, those with alarm clocks on and those with uninvited guests in their bed. Bebinca eventually turned west and the signal was lowered at 0910hrs, allowing for races to be resumed at 1330hrs. Hence we rallied the crew to assemble in the Empire Center car park, ready to do battle in the 500m standard boat (18 paddlers) category.

This was the Open Championship, i.e. the one that matters to all the local teams. The Navy was in lane one on the far right, the BUZZ in lane eight on the far left. In between were nothing but Chinese teams, including the ‘Naturally Plus – New Auspicious Dragon’, ‘Unique Timepieces by Halewinner’ and the ‘Nam Hoi Traders Association Challenge Club Dragon Boat Team’. And we though our team name was a mouthful. Right next to us in lane 2 was the Tai O Dragon Boat Team.

ARE YOU READY – ATTENTION – GO and we were off to a solid start, as instructed by CRO Barnaby: sitting tall, finding clean water and pulling hard. Video footage from the shore shows us nicely in contention at the start. But before long, Tai O to our left stormed ahead, putting about half a boat length between us. While we settled into our chug, the boat slowly started to aim to the left. Struggling with a slippery rudder, our helmsman tried his best to correct the course, but it was too late. Sitting in the back on the right (and thus looking left), I saw us aiming straight at the Tai O boat. A couple more strokes and we hit their afterdeck. Conditions in the harbour after a typhoon are choppy enough as it is, but if you get clipped on the side by a dragon boat at full speed, your boat will roll over and this is indeed what happened to the poor Tai O guys. As their boat capsized, we hesitated for a moment, contemplating a rescue. But that’s what rescue boats are for that follow the race and hence we continued to the finish, but obviously far out of contention.

Having crossed the line we immediately turned back to check on the Tai O boys. It was obvious they would be upset since the collision was clearly our fault. We apologised profusely, knowing very well that the local teams take these races very seriously. But incidents happen and hopefully Liechtenstein – Tai O diplomatic relations will not suffer for long.

Thus our racing was done for the day (and probably for the weekend) as sinking a fellow competitor will most likely result in a DQ and DNCB (Do Not Come Back)! But it’s races like this that remind us that these things happen and that no matter what – we always win or lose as a team. No single individual will ever be glorified for a victory and similarly, we will never blame a loss on any one team member. As LCDR Charlie always says: Anything can happen in a final! And something WILL always happen in the harbour – just read our archives.

Sunday, 23 June – just when we thought this weekend couldn’t get any weirder, it did.

Having literally crashed out of the Standard Boat category, we naturally assumed that Sunday would be a rest day. But at 1436hrs the Admiralty received a call from a race official, enquiring about the Navy’s present position. “At home,” the befuddled Admiral answered truthfully upon which he was told that we needed to immediately marshal for out next race. What race? Apparently, by having come fourth in the local Small Boat Open Championship on Friday we had qualified for the CCB (Asia) International Open Small Boat Grand Championship, alongside the University of the Philippines, Dongguan Machong Dragon Boat Team, the Singapore Dragon Boat Association, Dragon Thailand and the three local teams that beat us on Friday. Unlike Friday, however, this race (the 'Small Grand') would have been over 500m (not 250m). Thailand won it in 2:08.604”, Singapore came second (in 2:09.404, clearly not impeded by those life vests they seem required to wear at all times) and Dongguan was third (2:09.511”) with the Firemen the first local team in fourth in 2:16.131”. We can only speculate where the Navy (“DNS”) would have featured in all of this…

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