The Villages - May 2008 - (Page 22)

The high point of the season was the Central Florida Dragon Boat Festival in March at Lake Dora in Tavares. Twenty-nine dragon boat teams competed. The team had practiced on this water for two months and felt prepared to do well in competition. It was a sunny and warm spring day; however, the wind was stronger than they’d ever experienced during their three months of practices. “Last year’s race in Tavares was windy, so we tried to prepare ourselves for that,” Mickey said. “A couple of practices were windy — but not nearly as windy as it was that day. Because of the direction, it was difﬁcult for everyone, especially our steersman. If we drifted out of our lanes, we could be disqualiﬁed. Paul Hodges, my boat’s steersman, did a great job keeping us in our lane and on course.” The ﬁrst race of the day, a time trial, proved to be a real trial for The Villages team. Both boats were on the water to race for their qualifying time that would place them in a division for further competition. Trying to steer the boats into the racing lanes was a huge challenge for the paddlers. Shortly after the race started, Team I, led by Liz, had a difﬁcult time keeping the boat in its lane and drifted into Mickey’s Team II lane. Team I was getting closer to Team II’s boat and couldn’t get turned back. GETTING READY TO COMPETE Suddenly, the bow of Liz’s boat rammed the stern of Mickey’s boat, knocking the dragon tail off and sending it splashing into the water. A sharp “thud” was felt in both boats, but as both teams were heavily focused on paddling, most were unaware of the cause and the mystery wasn’t solved until the teams returned to shore. Luckily, no one was injured and neither boat suffered damage that would impair it from further competition. After the collision, Team I drifted off course and had to stay on the water until the next heat to try to get a qualifying time. “The windy conditions made it impossible to steer in a straight line. We had the best steersman, Pat Rauls, but the elements were our ﬁercest competitor,” Liz said. Pat Rauls said, “I have been a steersman for over two years. In that time I had never encountered winds as strong. Generally, it takes just gentle guiding on the oar. With the rough conditions on race day it took all my upper body strength on the oar. I also got cramps in my hand from the force of the oar.” Both teams completed their ﬁrst heat safely and got acclimated to the difﬁcult water conditions they would have to deal with all day. For safety reasons, the festival organizers decided to remove four paddlers from each boat to make the boats a bit lighter and sit higher in the lake and take less water in from the waves. They also removed the dragon head and tail from each boat. “My crew adapted wonderfully. They worked together well as a team,” Liz said. Despite the difﬁcult conditions, spirits were kept high by the team’s supporters. Dick Greer, a resident of the Village of Virginia Trace and two-year member of the Dragons, said there was a good crowd of people who came out to root for the Village Dragons. 22 MAY 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Villages - May 2008

The Villages - May 2008 Contents Latin Dancing Makes for Fun Fitness Making Graceful Moves in the Water Students Create Culinary Ecstasy in Pizzas Summer Plants and Flowers Brain Exercises Shopping & Dining Guide Retail Briefs Entertainment Briefs Major Events Snapshots

The Villages - May 2008

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