Race Reports

As this is our first season on the dragon boat team Loreley, we were consumed by nervousness and afflicted with insomnia the night before the first race in Deep Water Bay. Despite this turbulent sleep we both woke up around 6:15am. Jodi began the day with a hearty bowl of oatmeal, while Kat had a gourmet ham and cheese sandwich. Like mom said, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” We met in Wan Chai at 7am, which is funny considering that’s usually the time you leave Wan Chai on a Sunday morning! We hailed a taxi and headed to DWB.

Our first race was scheduled at 9:15am with the line up at 8:40am. To help us overcome our nervousness, the captains reminded us to keep our heads in the boat and focus on timing. We entered the boats on the water from a floating dock, which was much more difficult than entering the boat from the beach. Once we were in the boat we decided on doing our usual practice start and then light paddling to the start line. During training we were told that lining up the boats could take forever- and it did! The race began with a good start from Team Loreley, which of course left room for improvement. The timing was ok, but not good enough to overtake the three fastest boats. We ended the first race in fourth place with a time of 2:45.

The second race came soon after our scores were revealed, so we had a brief moment to grab some water and food before we lined up again. The team’s goal was to beat the previous time. This time the line-up didn’t take as long and the starting horn came much more quickly. Our start was comparable to the first race. We, once again, ended this race with a respectable fourth place and accomplished our goal of beating our previous time with 2:37. Considering the rough water conditions, compared to the earlier race, and the fact that we beat the Swiss, it was a great victory!

The next break was quite long which gave the Team Loreley fans time to arrive at the beach to cheer us on for the final race. Based on our previous scores it was determined that we would race in the Tail Final. Once again, our goal was to focus on the timing, keep our heads in the boat and continue to improve on our times. When the “ready” was called we were prepared to show DWB and all our fans what a great team Loreley is (plus, we had to earn the beer we were about to drink!). The horn blew and we executed the best start of the day which gave us a clear advantage over the other teams. The energy in the boat was extraordinary and everyone gave 110%. As we approached the finish line, the energy overtook our ability to keep the rating stable and the timing in the boat fell apart. Despite this mistake, we crossed the finish line first and beat ALL the teams in our heat. Cheers erupted from the boat and the shore where our fans and friends were celebrating our victory. Our first race day appropriately ended with a gratifying victory and a well-earned beer!

Stößchen!!!

By Katharina Radtke and Jodi Beck

Another Sunday morning getting up early – this can only mean another Dragon Boat race day!
For the second race day of the season 2011, Team Loreley attended “Lamma 500”.
This is a small but competitive race event with the regular competitors in Hong Kong. After a successful day of 500 meter races in Deepwater Bay the target of Team Loreley for Lamma was, of course, to give our best and also beat our times in prior 500 meter races.
In our first Heat, which was the first race of the day, we paddled against the famous Tai Tam Tigers as well as the Royal X Team. We managed a great start and even though the timing was falling apart a bit during the body of the race, we came in second with a very good time of 2:16. Key point to take away for the further races was focusing on our own boat and focusing on timing, timing, timing…
The race format in Lamma is based on points awarded in the first two heats. The five boats with the highest points from the first two heats go straight into the Cup Final and the other teams compete in the repechage. With that said, the target in the second heat was to gain as many points as possible and come in at least second place again. We had another very good race, powered it up at the finish, and achieved our goal coming in second again. Overall we had not achieved enough points for the Cup Final and were scheduled to compete again in the repechage.
For a new experience the team decided to attend the 1000 meter races as well. How exciting! The first 1000 meter race in Loreley’s history! To save enough power for the 500 meter repechage the strategy was to keep a low rating and simply enjoy the experience. The race has a flying start and we started in place 3 following the Tai Tam Tigers. We managed to keep the rating low and the timing pretty consistent over the 1000 meter distance and were happy with the final result of 5:17.19
In our last 500 meter race, the repechage race, we threw in everything we had. It wasn’t enough to come in first. We lost it at the start and the Lantau Buffalos as well as the Fairdinkums were simply stronger!
So we finished the day with a captain’s speech and our obligatory beer race. And we enjoyed a bit more beer and a great after race party with the other teams at the beach!
We had a successful and wonderfully fun day and it reminded me again of what a great team we have and how much I enjoy paddling with Loreley.
We do have another three weeks of training to go before the Stanley Championships and our big Loreley party at Stanley beach that same day. The team will now focus the training on short distances to make sure we win a big cup in the Stanley races!
Paddels up!

Claudia Beisch

A really lovely but hot day for some dragon boat raceing on Hong Kong Lamma Island. It was the first time for our team to participate at this race. The venue was at a nice long beach and the race course was along the Lamma island power plant. After we spotted the beach we also quickly realized that other teams that had been there before were prepared better then us and reserved some sun protection devices…different from Deep Water Bay, there is no natural sun protection at this beach available – but finally we could rent some leftovers and minimize sunburn during the day!

RACE 05 – Mixed Heat
As always…the first race in the morning we still might have been in church mode even though our captain was inspired by a guest training session at a fishermens team what made him let us paddle a 500m race with a very very high rating. In the middle of the course we completely felt appart and we drifted in with a time that was not bad for our team but left the paddlers completely exhausted:
Southside Massive Urban Gorrilaz – 2.14.01
Lantau Boat Club – 2.17.62
Royal-X Mixed – 2.23.44
Team Loreley – 2.27.31
RACE 18 – Mixed Heat
Reviewing the first race and finding out that our rating was not very well and even hurted his back, our captain made a unique decision and putted himself on the drummers seat what brought him the title of the 2nd sexiest drummer on Lamma Island 500. The rest of the Team he drummed with strategy on a secure 2nd Place without overpowering the boat and leaving enough energy for the next possible races:
HKIPC Mixed – 2.18.81
Team Loreley – 2.28.50
CX Dragon Boat Team – 2.32.87
Future Brand CheckMate – 2.37.96
RACE 30 – Mixed Repecharge
This was the repecharge and our chance to enter the plate finals. Again we got Lamma Islands 2nd sexiest drummer on our boat and gave it all. Great effort of everybody and a boat that was 500 meters in good rythm brought us a team record time and nearly into the plate finals.
Tai Tam Tigers – 2.17.81
Buzz Dragons – 2.18.87
Team Loreley – 2.19.18
NTEC Hospital – 2.24.46
Future Brand CheckMate – 2.30.27
Eventhough we did not make it this time, we came close to the big teams like the TTT and brought the BUZZ Dragons really in trouble, when made the course in a team record time with potential for more as well as we were free to end this beautiful day with a lot of beer pitchers – what we definitely can call a winwin situation! Next year we might beat you guys not only at the on shore boat race but offshore as well…

by Christian G