dragons4charity 2008

The Third Annual Charity Dragon Boat Races

Part I  - Sunday 22nd June 2008

Of course, when everything started off on the morning of Sunday 22nd June, no one knew that it was going to be part I. The weather wasn’t very brilliant, but the experts who advise us declared that everything was GO for the Racing, so GO it was!

The teams were all ready, the Marshals, the Sea Scouts, the Helms, the Safety Boat, Rtn Mike Swift and his trusty music collection, and several people with cameras dashing here and there, all contributed to a scene of carefully planned and concerted action - with a few sideways glances at the clouds in the sky.

The first few heats went off without a hitch, until the wash from a passing boat managed to swamp the Queenscourt team as they paddled slowly away from the finish line at the end of their timed heat! Fortunately the lake is only about three feet deep, but everyone got very  wet walking the boat back to shore!

Then, unfortunately, the wind started rising, and although the water on the lake was still calm and smooth, our expert advice was that the weather would only deteriorate, so the decision was taken to suspend racing. This was followed, a little while later, by a final cancellation. The Races would have to be rerun, and those teams who entered the first event would go forward to the second.

As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words so here, in our Picture Gallery, are tens of thousands of words condensed into a great collection of pictures! If you hover your cursor over the control bar, everything will light up, and you can move on or pause, or set the length of time each picture displays. Don’t worry, it won’t break.

The Third Annual Charity Dragon Boat Races

Part II  - Saturday 9th August 2008

Have you ever had the feeling that the more things change the more they stay the same? Well, Part II of the 2008 Dragon Boat races was just a little bit like that. Part I was abandoned because of the weather, and only one team got wet. Part II went ahead, and everybody got wet - at least as wet as they would have been had they actually gone into the lake instead of just paddling across it. But, that’s England in August

This picture gallery works in exactly the same way as the one above, except for the fact that there isn’t a soundtrack. It is very distracting having two playing at the same time!

There are a lot of pictures in the two galleries on this page. This might mean that the download is a little bit slow - it depends on the speed of your connection. So, if it takes a moment longer, please be patient. You will get there in the end!

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