Vessi 500 Championships Recap

The weather cooperated providing a cloudy cool day on June 1 with calm waters for racing at the Vessi 500 Championships dragon boat festival in Vancouver at False Creek.

Thanks to all who attended, with special mention to Brent J for early a.m. tent delivery.

Coach Denise was again tasked to put together teams with last minute roster changes.

Congrats started early with a couple of golds 🥇 being won by related Womens teams. The Rapids youth team we support also medaled.

Teams Rock and Roll took to the water in race 6 with team Roll bettering Rock by 9 seconds.

Team Rock worked on improving focus throughout the day and in the F Final just missed a third place medal by .5 of a second.

Team Roll progressed to an amazing D final which had 1st place boat far ahead and then a 7 boat cluster fractions of a second apart, (Roll came in 6th place), all in the 2 min and 21-23 second range. Well done all!

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Race results:

Race 6: Nothin' Dragon Rock – 2:34.065
Race 6: Nothin' Dragon Roll – 2:25.790

Race 14: Nothin' Dragon Rock – 2:38. 681

Race 15: Nothin' Dragon Roll 2:29.179

Race 22: Nothin' Dragon Rock – 2:31. 600 (Division F)

Race 24: Nothin' Dragon Roll – 2:23.219 (Division D)

Compare to 2023 Results

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Bronze Finish in Vessi 500 Senior C Cup

A beautiful day for racing at the Vessi 500 Championships dragon boat festival in Vancouver at False Creek. It was also a historic day as it was the first time Nothin' Dragon had two teams in the Senior C Cup race!

Both Red and Black teams put in a great day of racing and times improved as the day progressed.

From the Red team: "Despite being down a few teammates, no one got discouraged and everyone put in 100% effort all day. Our first race was a bit of a challenge. Just couldn’t get the glide! We figured it out, worked on ‘long and patient’ and ‘top hand pressure’ and the next three races felt great! Good glide, and strong finishes. Our times kept improving and we ended proudly with 2:26. It really was a fun day!"

From the Black team: “The consensus was that in our first race, the rate was high, but we managed to maintain it. Our effort resulted in a bronze place finish in the Senior C! Our focus for our next races was to go longer at a slower rate, and as we consistently aimed at doing so, we were able to improve each time and often were surprised to see our results as the effort felt like we may not be going that fast. It helped that most of our starts were strong and smooth. “

A big thanks to Coach Denise who manage lineups, answered questions and provided encouragement and feedback. She has drilled these points into us at training: go long, top hand pressure, patience. We're getting it!

And a special thank you to our steers and drummers who keep us on the course with their steadiness, calls and encouragement, even if they would rather be paddling. It's wonderful to see those new to these positions all doing so well. Your team is very proud of you!

Here are the race results for the Senior C Cup:

Race 1: Senior C

Nothin' Dragon Red – 2:38.291

Nothin' Dragon Black – 2:32.218 (bronze finish)

Our other race results:

Race 5: Nothin' Dragon Red – 2:35.784

Race 7: Nothin' Dragon Black – 2:27.158

Race 13: Nothin' Dragon Red – 2:34. 800

Race 15: Nothin' Dragon Black 2:25.124

Race 20: Nothin' Dragon Red – 2:26. 058 (Division F)

Race 22: Nothin' Dragon Black – 2:17.896 (Division D)

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