The Stanley Short Course Race is traditionally our season-ending race and hence we’ll always try to end the season on a high. Due to the absence of a number of Navy paddlers we roped in a contingent of highly capable BUZZ mercenaries. We were competing in both standard and small boats – Men’s only, of course!

With our first heat at 0808hrs, we assembled early at 0700hrs, taking our time to warm up and boarding our ship early for a little cruise before the race. Preparation is everything!

Thus properly acclimatized and focused, we readied ourselves for the first start. With CRO Barnaby at the stroke we powered through our standard LiechtenStart (10+10) and into the chug, long and deep. Tai Tam Tuk to our right seemed on a strategy more typical of many Chinese teams, i.e. a warp-speed start from which they tried to build even more speed. But while they probably had the advantage off the line they could not hold the tempo for the distance and we steadily came back at them, eventually crossing the line in first (51.96), almost a second ahead of them (52.78).

We’re frankly not quite used to putting in such a great performance in our first heat and CRO Barnaby put it quite rightly in the post-race briefing – there was great focus, concentration and determination all the way from the warm-up. Maybe there really was a subconscious desire to impress our guest paddlers from the BUZZ.

On to the small boat heat at 1104hrs. Again, taking our time to warm-up and get ready, we headed out against the Sea Warriors, Levi’s Dragon Boat Team and Sha Tau Kok. Tippy as always, the small boat was riding close to the waterline with our relatively heavyweight crew, but once the race was underway, we were clearly flying ahead of the competition. So much so that some of us took the foot off the gas to cruise to a comfortable victory, forgetting that qualification for the final would depend on time, not position. Luckily, our 1.02’44 was just enough to make the last spot in the Gold Cup Final.

Next up was the big boat semi final against the likes of Stormies, SMUGz and Trident from Singapore. But the main competition came from the two Chinese boats on our port and starboard side who were fighting us hard down the course. But we kept cool heads in the scorching noontime heat, sticking to our strategy and pulling off another victory (52.75) ahead of the two Chinese boats (53.14 and 53.51) and Trident (53.87). SMUGz and Stormies were fifth and sixth respectively.

Having won three out of three heats was unheard of and – subject to confirmation by the Princely Naval Archive - surely one for the record books.

It was also a nice way to welcome our guest of honor, H.E. Aurelia Frick, the Foreign Minister of the Principality of Liechtenstein who was on an official trip to Hong Kong to open a consular office here. The Admiralty arranged for Ms. Frick to take part in the traditional Eye Dotting Ceremony and later took time to meet with the crew. She seemed to greatly enjoy the occasion and encouraged the crew to go for all out victory.

Thus freshly motivated we paddled out for the Small Boat Gold Cup Final against HKIED, Team Mushu (the much improved Disney-sponsored team), Southeagles (regular winners of the standard boat category, but presumably short on paddlers), University of Macau and Trident of Singapore. It was a very tight race all the way – finals usually are – with all six boats finishing within two seconds. Southeagles came in first (1.00.42), ahead of Mushu (1.00.92) and the University of Macau (1.01.32). In another first for the Navy we finished in a dead heat with HKIED, both in fourth in 1.01.62! The concerned organizers summoned both team managers to decide who would get the trophy, but the Admiralty gladly offered the silverware to HKIED since we would surely take home a bigger cup in the standard boat final.

With our eyes firmly on the sizeable Gold Cup trophy we lined up for the final race of the day. It was the fifth time this season that we had made the biggest final of the respective event and it obviously says a lot about consistency in the Navy. Reminding ourselves that this would be the last minute of hard core paddling in the Official 2013 Season, we all put a big smile on our face, readied our paddles and took off into the sunset. Our ‘shorter and snappier’ start worked beautifully and set us up for a good transition and chug. But the Chinese guys to our right (another team with no English name) powered ahead at lightning speed, winning the race in 49.53. We stuck to our guns and stayed true to our strategy – deep, long strokes, still at a great pace, but always looking for clean water to pull – which brought us home in third in 51.42, behind the Sea School Old Boys (50.14), which it must be said are also a very consistent team.

A podium finish in a field of 34 men’s teams is a superb result that we happily celebrated with our traditional end-of-season BBQ on the beach, enjoying the beautiful end of a gorgeous day and a fantastic fourteenth season for the Navy.