A regional dragon boat race is returning to the shores of Powell Lake and event organizers are inviting the public to come out and watch.
“They’re a lot of fun,” said Powell River’s Pearl Warriors team captain Lynnette Mangan, who has been a paddler for the past six years. She is a member of The Final Fling committee, a group organizing the upcoming dragon boat races.
Pearl Warriors is a mixed team of men and women of all ages. Powell River’s Paddling for Life team, which is also taking part in the races, is made up of breast cancer survivors and is helping to organize the event.
Powell River has hosted the event once before, three years ago.
The Final Fling is a windup paddle festival for teams on the Sunshine Coast. This is the sixth annual event and up until this year it has included teams from Gibsons all the way up to Powell River. The 2013 event will include two teams from Comox and what Mangan called “a mystery team.”
Nine teams of 20 paddlers each will race in Mowat Bay, and while the event is “just for fun,” there will be a certain level of competitiveness, she said.
Paddlers sit two-aside in the boat with a steers person who acts as a rudder at the rear and a drummer at the front, she said.
“Everyone thinks the drummer controls the boat, but it’s the other way around,” she said. The two paddlers at the front of the boat, called lead strokes, are the ones who set the pace, she added.
“But if the drummer sees we’re lagging, they’ll tell us,” she said.
The Final Fling race course is 350 metres long, but elite race courses can be up to a kilometre or two in length. Three dragon boats race at one time against each other for the best cumulative time. Each team has three races and their times recorded. At the end of the three races the team with the lowest total cumulative time will be the winner.
A good finish time for the 350 metres is just under two minutes, she said.
The first race will start at 9:30 am Saturday, September 14, after a short welcoming ceremony and group warm-up. The best seats to watch the races from will be on the terraced grassy slope at Mowat Bay where people will be able to easily see the finish line. Mangan said the races will be wrapped up by noon and then during the lunch break Powell River Outrigger Club and paddlers from the Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation will perform sprints. The outriggers will also go head-to-head in a 1,000-metre race. Lunch will be available onsite from Louise Williams and Barry Kosturos’s food truck. After lunch a dragon boat obstacle race is planned and awards will be presented.
Mangan said that this will be the last year that the event is called “The Final Fling” because the instigator of the event, Sechelt resident Sally Haugen, died this year from breast cancer. The organizers will rename the festival to pay tribute to Haugen.
