Team Registration packages are now on the website for this year's fesitval.

Our 9th Annual Fesitval will take place Saturday August 12th. GWN will supply our boats, officials and timing. We are looking into qualfying under the new Sport Racing Category at the present time. More details will follow.

www.dragonboatwoodstock.ca for more info.

Thanks for all your support.

Dave

Too bad the World Club Crews are on the same weekend in TO although they don't get a lot of those teams anyway. My team however will be attending the WCCC where as we ordinarily attend Woodstock that weekend. Woodstock is a great small festival with good water. Best of luck Dave!

the announcer last year was great!

Dave -- Was there any consideration given to moving the date up or back by a week this year?

You do a great event, but with a world championships in our backyard I think a lot of Toronto crews may stay home to watch.

Hello Dave,

I echo the post made by Anonymous February 3 2006, 4:30 PM.
With the worlds in Toronto and 5 of my ladies taking part the rest of the crew will remain in Toronto to support them and the other Canadian crews.

Michael T

Many members of Piranhas - Beach are on crews that will be competing at the WCCC that same weekend and as such, there is a very strong liklihood that our crew will be unable to attend the event despite having a free entry.

Last year was our first time at the event and we were planning on making it a permanent addition to our annual schedule. Given the great publicity generated from last year's event and the opportunity created by the folding of a competing regatta, it would be a waste to see Woodstock fail to capitalize by making itself unavailable for more teams to come and try. The buzz created by last year's success will surely not be as impactful two years after the fact (if at all). Moreover, with many Toronto-based crews stating interest in this event, the Woodstock Rotary Club is missing out on a lot of charitable revenue.

Dave, the New Dragons Alumni really enjoyed the festival last year, and were looking forward to returning this year. But we'd also like to be in Toronto to watch the WCCC and cheer on our teammates that are competing there. Is there any chance you'd delay your regatta by a week?

That would be Woodstock Saturday and we're already committed to Oakville Sunday. A hell of a weekend but we're game.

Oakville was more of a local event last year wasn't it?

Oakville is Aug 20 according to their website.

But, Oakville is the same weekend as London (Aug 19).

Welcome to Southern Ontario where dragon boating is out of control (in a good way).

Thank you for your feedback. We have looked at changing our date but no matter which way we go there are problems of one sort or another. The committee has decided to stick with our date, realizing that we may loose some teams from Toronto this year. We are starting our own dragon boat club in Woodstock with the boats we build last year. Hopefully an increase in local teams will offset the loss.

Next year maybe we'll get more local teams and the teams from TO back and the festival will be better than ever.

Dave. How did you build your own boats? Is there a dragon boat builder in Woodstock?

I beleive we were the first club in Ontario to build the boats from the GWN kit. It was a ton of work for an inexperienced bunch of Rotarians but the final results recieved a good response from those that have paddled them. The cost of course was substantially cheaper then buying buk boats and they will serve as great training boats.

There are a few pictures online under "breaking news" at www.dragonboatwoodstock.ca and more on our Rotary Club website at www.rotary7080.org/woodstock. Look under Photo Journals