The Woodstock Rotary Dragon Boat Festival will be celebrating its 8th year on August 6th.

We invite all teams to come out for a great day of racing and fun. The event is held at the Pittock Conservation Area just North of Woodstock, providing a great site for relaxing and enjoying the day. Bring the kids as they can enjoy the splash pad and playground equipment.

We are only 1.5 hours or less from the Golden Horseshoe area. Entry fees are a reasonable $650/team.

We appreciate the support of entries from outside Woodstock and want to keep you coming back. The course will be moved further offshore to provide more consistent lane depth this year.

The Rotary Club of Woodstock has completed 2 of the GWN kit boats for local teams to practice in (GWN will be supplying race day boats). Who knows, we may have some local contenders!

For more information go to www.dragonboatwoodstock.ca

We enjoy this event and will be back for our 8th year. It's well run, inexpensive, and has a great site to set up camp.

What's a kit boat?

GWN has developed a kit dragon boat. It is assembled from marine grade plywood and overlayed with fibreglass. We built two of these boats. It is quite the project for a group of unskilled boatbuilders. We are quite happy with the results though. You can see some pictures on our Rotary Website under Photo Journals. www.rotary7080.org/woodstock

Hey Dave do you guys own these boats? If so are you planning on starting up a little dragon boat club in Woodstock? Pittock lake would be a great place for teams to train throughout the season. I think you guys could start something really good there.

Yes we own the boats and are will be getting a Dragon Boat Club started up soon. Our goal is to get the old rowing club building on the south side of the lake and use it as our base. From there we need to make docks and then we are off to the "races".

I expect that this year we will have a few "learn to Paddle" days before and after the Festival to generate local interest and ensure 2006 gets off to a good start. If any teams are interested in renting these for practice please contact me. We are still working out the detalis of the lake usage this year but expect rental fees to be around $35/hour.

I think Pittock is a great lake that is underused. It is perfect for Dragonboating since the one end is a "no wake" zone. If you want a longer paddle, the lake extends upstream quite a ways as well.

"expect rental fees to be around $35/hour."

Good luck, Dave. The Woodstock Festival has always been fun. Maybe you're town could produce the next Sudbury Chiros.

Dave, you could really start a healthy rivalry with Stratford if you get things off the ground. Good luck. It is nice to see this kind of grass roots paddling starting up.

When I said "Good luck, Dave" I meant it sincerely. Re-reading it now it looks like the tone could be misconstrued as sarcastic. Seriously, $35/hour might get teams to commute!

Having boats available all summer will help support your festival in the long run and is a good investment. Stratford has about 6 or 7 teams that practice all spring/summer. As well there is a new race league that has been introducing new paddlers to the sport. I have a few paddlers from Woodstock that come down to Stratford so there is interest out of Woodstock. Good luck with your new club!

You have a great venue and a very classy organization. Best of luck and I am sure you will be successful.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I really think this is a great opportunity but each step of the way it looks like more and more work to get to the end. I am hoping to generate some support locally to get more hands on the project.

I didn't take the "good luck" statement sarcastically. I limit my time on this forum to avoid the jaded veiw that a few posters have(lol). Actually it is a great way to keep up on the sport and get a lot of info in a hurry.

Just a note for the commuters. There is lots of free parking for the at the site.

Dave

To all entering Woodstock or thinking about it - Have a great race day. It's a fun event that is run very smoothly. Unfortunately I won't be racing there this year, but I have always enjoyed it in the past. Maybe next year!!

For any teams concerned about our reg. deadline being June 30th; We have extended it for another week. If you are interested in entering please e-mail us and follow with the registration ASAP.

We still have room for more teams and have just received 3 or 4 more entries from the Toronto Area. Thanks for your support

For an up to date listing of teams entered go to www.dragonboatwoodstock.ca and look in the Teams section.

Thanks,
Dave