2014 Dragon Boats - What a fantastic day!

Picture the scene - sun shining on a peaceful Chatham Marina. The lovingly cared for Dunkirk Little Ships bobbing gently on the water.  The exhibitors at the Medway Maritime Food and Drink Festival are opening for business and a few people are starting to wander around looking at the tasty goodies on offer.

Gradually, the crowds are swelled with men, women and children in a variety of brightly-coloured outfits, the PA springs into life and everyone turns to look at the water in Basin 2 and spot the dragon boats waiting to be filled with excited, slightly anxious people.

14 teams with 16 or more people in a team plus their friends and family means the quayside is teeming with happy smiling (some painted) faces and when the racing gets under way theyre all shouting for their favourite team to do their best.

Every team entered has 3 races so for the first race, they're just finding out how it all works but then with the second and third races they go all out to get their best time  and wow did some of them improve.  Tops the Lot only managed to complete their first race in 1 minute, 24 seconds but improved hugely to 1 minute, 9 seconds next time.  Some of the boats went even faster - at least 2 of them completing their races in less than a minute.

Everyone in the boats, paddlers and drummers, all came off the water muttering about co-ordination and vowing to come back next year and do even better - they had such a wonderful time.

The final race between the 4 fastest boats - Windy Pandas, Long Arm of the Oar, Never Been In A Boat and Kent Property Club - was fiercely competitive with just 0.96 of a second separating the winners, Windy Pandas, from the Long Arm of the Oar.

Another winner from the racing was the boat sponsored by Rotary Club of Northfleet with Ebbsfleet, called General Gordon as they were awarded the boat with the best fancy dress all paddlers being beautifully dressed as Pocahontas.

We have to say thank you so much to Chatham Maritime Trust and Arethusa for allowing us to fill Basin 2 with noise and laughter for a few hours during the Food and Drink Festival.  Big thanks too, to Dragon Boat Events who brought the boats, life jackets and paddles and made sure everyone stayed safe on the water.  Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who took part, especially those who sponsored a boat, and those who came to watch.

This was, of course, a charity event and we are delighted to say we have raised  through the dragon draw, the magnificent human fruit machine and generous donations - a magnificent £1400.  In addition sponsorship is still coming in but has already reached a further £2000! If you would like to sponsor these brave souls in aid of Rotary charities please visit https://mydonate.bt.com/events/dragonboatchallenge/131435