Competing in events with over 40 dragon boats is exciting enough, but in late May a number of our team will be jetting to Hong Kong to experience dragon boating on another level – over 200 boats competing in a day of intense races!

The Stanley Dragon Boat Races are held every spring to celebrate the Tuen Ng festival, which falls on the 5th day of the 5th month in the lunar calendar, and traditionally commemorates the tragic death of Qu Yuan, a wise and honest minister of state who died in 288 BC, and which is also understood to be the foundation of dragon boat racing.

This year the event falls on Thursday 28th May.

In the 70s, what began as a simple pastime for the fisher folk in the Stanley area soon caught the attention of local expats, and the legacy of the Stanley Dragon Boat Races began.

Since then, the event has grown with momentum each year, with a staggering 233 teams competing in 2008, and 208 teams the year before that. That equates to about 4600 paddlers in attendance, not to mention the drummers, helmsmen, officials and of course the spectators. This is one lively event indeed!

Unsurprisingly, the event has received wide popularity and interest from local youth and corporate teams, as well as becoming a firm favourite for international teams.

For our team, this will be the second outing into the territory of international paddling, the first being when we entered the Venice Vogalonga last year, another long-established and traditional regatta also in May. The Stanley Races differs to the Vogalonga in that the day consists of a series of heats and finals raced over a 250m discipline, which further splits into Mens (Native and Ex-pats), Mixed and Ladies categories. In contrast, the Vogalonga consists of a single, continuous yet somewhat relaxed endurance race, covering a distance of 30km, and with over a thousand boats and floating crafts of various styles competing against each other. Click here to read the race report for this event.

The Stanley Dragon Boat Races will definitely be one to remember, with races set in an electric atmosphere against seasoned teams, seeing how it’s done on the other side of the world, and making new friends with the same passion for this high energy sport.

Typhoon are gonna rip it up!