Dragonboat History

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Dragon boats are brightly coloured long narrow wooden boats with elaborately-carved dragon heads decorating the prows.

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The standard crew complement of a contemporary dragon boat is around 22, comprising 20 paddlers in pairs facing toward the bow of the boat, one drummer or caller at the bow facing toward the paddlers, and one person steering the tiller (or helm) at the rear of the boat.

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To-day there are two types of Dragon Boat Racing activities, namely Sport racing, and Festival racing.

Dragon boat races are traditionally held as part of the annual Duanwu Jie festival observance in China.

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This festival commemorates the death of the poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.

The local people, who admired him, paddled out on their boats, to scare away the fish, and threw rice in the river, so that the fish would not eat his body.

This then is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.