The 22nd York Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge was held on Sunday 14th July. Unfortunately the day was the coldest that we could remember compared with the last twenty one years of Dragon Boat Challenges and it rained light drizzle rain most of the day, in spite of that the atmosphere at the event was very good.
We had a full compliment of 36 teams who each competed in three heats of three boats racing, the day finished with the impressive six boat grand final.
The event is a big logistical challenge involving a team of approximately 100 overall from Dragon Boat Events Ltd, York City Rowing Club, York Rotary, Inner Wheel, Friends of York Rotary and friends of Rotarians. Thank you to everyone for their fantastic efforts.
The of the event was greatly assisted by our three sponsors, Shepherd Group, Simpson and a new sponsor this year Reed Boardall. We are very grateful to those sponsors for their invaluable support.
In parallel with the racing from the team bases on south bank of the river a gala was held on the north bank, that was attended by twenty stall holders, including the Rotary tea tent. For the Rotary tea tent 400 home made cup cakes were made and creatively iced by many members of Inner Wheel and Rotarians or their partners. All of the cup cakes were sold. The tea tent was mainly staffed by members of Inner Wheel and we give them our thanks. The tea tent was sponsored by BA Coates and Sons Ltd Electrical Services Electrical, we are very grateful for that support. The total raised by the Tea Tent was a very impressive £1,520.
As part of the racing to add colour and variety the teams were encouraged to wear fancy dress, there were many very creative outfits. The Ged Bell trophy for the best dressed team was won by Kyra Women’s Project, The Kyra Crew.
The race commentary was provided by Bill from Dragon Boat Events along with Elly Fiorentini of BBC Radio York. Both Bill and Elly have been commentating for twenty years and that lively commentary adds much to the event. Elly was trying to persuade teams to race fast in spite of the weather conditions.
Turning to the race prizes the Tailenders trophy, for the slowest team time, was won by York in Recovery (YIR), Recovery Knights with a time of 01.19.38. The Charity trophy for the fastest Charity team not winning the grand final was Door 84, team Roar for Door 84 with a time of 00.56.79. The Ouse trophy for the fastest commercial team not winning the grand final was YO1 Radio, team YO1 Radio Rules the Waves with a time of 00.55.86.
The Grand Final was won by Ged Bell Butchers and their team The Growlers with a time of 00.54.65 Ged Bell Butchers have competed in many of the Dragon Boat Challenges since the first one and they have win before so it was nice to see them winning again.
The overall results of the Grand Final were as follows:
A video of the Grand Final and some of the behind the scenes activities that you are probably not aware of is available to watch:
Also for the first time the Dragon Boat Challenge appeared on a BBC Look North late on the evening of the event, click on the image below to watch the video.
Turning to the fundraising we will not know the final total for several weeks, but currently the total raised is £84,000 and we confidently expect that to increase. The funds will be shared 2/3 to the charities selected by individual teams and one Third shared equally between York Samaritans and York Rotary Charity Fund which will support other local charities.
For more information click here to go to the York Rotary Dragon Boat website pages.
Finally thanks to Kris Brown who as official photographer who took many photographs of the day.
With a final thank you to all those involved we are now starting planning for the 2025 Dragon Boat Challenge to be held on the 13th July.
David Fotheringham
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