The 2023 Steveston Regatta, now called the Freshco Richmond Dragon Boat Festival will go down in the books as an eventful day!
The day started with the women's division, but only got to race 6, and then the event was put on hold due to high winds and white caps.
A mandatory meeting was called for 12 noon, where a contingency plan was offered to the teams, reducing races from three 500m to two 200m. Event organizers also stated they would provide a steers for any teams needing one. Races were to resume at 2 p.m.
The team discussed the situation and all voted to not race due to safety concerns. Approximately eight other teams made the same decision. The weather did calm a bit by the 2 p.m. restart.
Due to the long wait, the vendors and beer garden did very well, and Nothin' Dragon enjoyed the music, shopping and team camaraderie.
Sandra was acting captain for the day and she was assisted by Linda.
Congrats to Coach Denise who came home with a gold medal with the FCRCC C-Horses with a 200m time of 1:04 in the Women’s Grand Final.
Waiting in the tent and trying to stay warm on a windy day!
Marjorie and Marg also raced with Dragon Hearts Motley Crew, and they took a Gold finish in the Mixed D final with a 200m time of 1:03.
Below is how the event explained what took place that day:
The first 6 races of the day were run on the 500M course. After consultation with the RCMSAR/public safety partners/race operations, a decision was made to pause races starting at race 7. A captain and manager meeting was announced on-site for 12pm, during which time, a revised race program including course shortening was announced to take into account advice from our safety partners and weather forecasts. As well, new information about additional safety precautions being deployed was shared, and an opportunity for teams to speak with event organizers and safety personnel publicly or privately was provided.
The course was shortened to 200M to avoid an area of water near the 500M start line that was deemed particularly challenging, and additional safety resources were put in place. The races were able to restart at 2pm, and ended approximately at the time the original program was scheduled to end. During the race restart period, our operations team monitored conditions on a regular basis alongside our public safety partners to ensure the event could operate safely, and determined on a regular basis that we could continue the races.
We are currently working through wrapping up the event, and will be reaching out to teams to provide additional support on this incident in the coming weeks after we close out the event. We thank you for your understanding as we worked to ensure the event could restart in a safe way.
