About Dragon Boat

Fully loaded, a dragon boat seats 20 paddlers, a steers person and a drummer who sits at the from of the boat and beats out the stroke. The boats themselves are multicoloured and during races a large dragon head and tail is traditionally mounted on the ends of the boat. Races are usually between 200 and 1000 meters in length and last between 2 and 4 minutes.

Origins

Chinese history refers to the 2000 year old story of the statesman and poet Qu Yuan. After urging his king not to sign a peace treaty that he believed to be a deception was expelled from the kingdom by the unscrupulous king. Humiliated and tormented over living in exile, Qu Yuan chose to drown himself in the Miluo River as a protest to political corruption. While he was drowning, local fishermen rushed out in boats to try and help. To try and stop his body from being eaten by dangerous fish and water dragons they beat drums and thrashed the water with their paddles. To nourish his weakened spirit, the fisherman through bags of rice into the river.

The beating of drums and throwing rice to feed Qu Yuan's spirit are traditions that have propagated through the ages to dragon boat races of today.

Modern History

The modern era of international racing can be said to have started in the early 80's in Great Britain and, in North America, in 1986 with a demonstration race that took place at Expo 86 in False Creek, which was won by the first FCRCC men's dragon boat team. Since then, False Creek members have represented Canada on many occasions.

The popularity of the sport in B.C. has grown dramatically over the years to the point where regattas (or fesitvals, as they are usually called) are held almost every weekend from late spring to early fall. The largest event remains the Rio Tinto Alcan Festival, which is held every June on the orginal False Creek site used in 1986.