A spectacular season comes to a somewhat unspectacular end.

The Short Course Race – as its name suggests – is held over the more civilized distance of 200m. But just because it’s shorter, it’s by no means less contested. In fact, in many ways the event is more competitive than the ‘big’ Stanley event, given that there are considerably more Chinese teams participating. These teams seem to change in name and composition from year to year, hence it is often hard to make out on paper where the strongest opposition will come from.

But it gets fairly obvious once you hit the water. The Sea School Old Boys are a perennial contender on their home turn – so to speak – and they (49.27) beat us (50.13) into second place in our first heat.

Our drummer felt the back of the boat was slow to catch the start, but at least we kept in a straight line. In the very first heat of the day, Zama Dragon was taken for a ride off-course and took 2.20.88 to find the finish line!

Next up were Small Boats, known in Stanley as Standard Boats With Only Ten Crew Paddling. What’s up with that, Stanley Residents Association? Why can’t we race Small Boats in small boats?

We were up against plenty of unknowns, including Sirius Dragon Boat Team which put up a serious (haha) fight. However, the real threat came from Team Mushu – an outfit of very athletic Disneyland performers that has gone from what looked like a fun and social team a couple of years ago to a Clear And Present Danger for the Navy and anyone else unfortunate to be in their draw. They ‘mushued’ us into second place with a 54.71 versus our 56.31 and eventually went on to win the Small Boat Gold Cup.

That final was rather eventful for the Navy as Sailor James broke his paddle on the very first stoke! This meant that LCDR Barnaby had to get up and grab a spare paddle, putting two of ten paddlers out of action for about six or seven strokes during the crucial start phase of the race. Although unfortunate, it was actually a beautiful display of composure and control as the rest of the team stayed together and followed the agreed battle plan. To still finish the final in third place behind Team Mushu and a Chinese team was thus pretty amazing (UBS was 5th and Fair Dinkum 7th – both presumably paddling with ten men AND ten paddles for the entire race).

In the Standard Boats it was ‘crunch time at lunch time’, as we were up against the team with the fastest time in the heats (Lee Kum Kee A, which went on to win the Gold Cup). To our right was Windrider, a name we had often beaten in the past but somehow seem to have gone through some kind of rejuvenation transformation. Whatever it was, the new Windrider put up a fierce fight to the line and according to the timesheets beat us into third – and thus denied us an entry into the Gold Cup Final – by three hundredths of a second! We didn’t ask for the finish line photo, but we suspect the distance between the boats couldn’t have been more than a nose hair of the dragon.

Not having made the Gold Cup Final was a bit of a let-down, since we had made it into the top final quite regularly since Lamma. The objective thus was to win the Silver Cup and beat the Stormies in the process – both of which we failed. Although it felt like a good start and early chug – a glance to the left indicating that we were ahead of the boys in red at that time – Stormies picked up towards the finish while we did the opposite, splashing and thrashing our final way to the beach. In the end, another Chinese team won it (50.71), Stormies were second (51.75) and the Navy third (52.15).

It would have been nice to end the season on a high, but as we couldn’t find it on the water we went looking for it in the six cases of Singha beer we brought to clear! With the fuel doing its magic – and Fred doing his with the BBQ – we found another ecstasy: the pleasure, fun and camaraderie that comes from being a member of the Greatest Naval Force Of Any Double Landlocked Country In the Whole Wide World – THE LIECHTENSTEIN PRINCELY NAVY!