Lets go with the top 12 crews, starting with 24 points down to 2 points. Each placement miss is an 1/8 loss.

True Rankings will take:
1. Mayfair
2. CSDBC
3. Hydro
4. Hanalai
5. Pine Ridgebacks I (Fairport A - if my memory serves me)
6. Hammerheads

7. Scotia Rouge
8. Mowat Mustangs
9. Prianhas
10. Big Fish
11. The Blades
12. New College

Note that you can easily get one up on the rankings that don't have any expectations for Philly.

Crews are here:
http://www.dragonboats.com/documents/Racebook_2008.pdf

Good luck. Make sure to make some predictions for Ottawa as well.

1. Mayfair
2. CSDBC
3. Hydro
4. Hanalei
5. Hamburg
6. Scotia Rouge

7. Philly
8. Piranhas
9. Big Fish
10. Hammerheads
11. Pine Ridge
12. The Blades

Taking a huge guess on the Hamburg crew, but not guessing on Philly.

1. Mayfair - No real contenders
2. CSDBC - A great crew, but will not challenge Mayfair
3. Hydro - Might star nipping at CSBC's heels
4. Hanalai - Firmly 4th
5. Hamburg – They sooound fast?
6. Scotia Rouge - A shadow of former Scotia Rouge

7. Hammerheads – Their 2k is laughable, but this team contends in the 500m
8. Big Fish - They should be done tweaking their crew
9. Philly – Not the Philly the A div needs to worry about.
10. New College - A fit, light weight crew will do well
11. The Blades - The next A level team?
12. Piranhas - This crew has come apart

1. Mayfair
2. Hamburg
3. CSDBC
4. Hanalei
5. Scotia Rouge
6. Hydro

7. Philly
8. Piranhas
9. Big Fish
10. The Blades
11. Pine Ridge
12. HH

1. Mayfair
2. Hydro
3. CSDC
4. Philly
5. Hanalei
6. Hammerheads

7. Scotia Rouge
8. Big Fish
9. Piranhas
10. Hamburg
11. Blades
12. New Dragons

1) Mayfair
2) Hydrophobic
3) CSDC
4) Hanelei
5) Rouge
6) Philly
7) Hamburg
8) Hammerheads
9) Big Fish
10) Piranhas
11) New College
12) Blades

Why such high expectations for Hamburg? Last time a German team came over, "Holsten", they weren't that fast.

Cuz everyone likes to hope that they get to see top calibre international teams come race with them. Yes, that's very rarely the case, but a guy can dream.

Soothy hasn't had a good year so far. Things will change following TIDBRF's return to prominance as a premier event.

1. Mayfair Predators - This won't be close since the teams occupying the lanes beside them aren't known to be great washriders.
2. CSDC - Will be ranked 3rd going in to the final but their racing experience will give them the extra push to beat the young upstarts again.
3. Hydro - Will qualify second and will make it close up to the halfway mark. CSDC will pass them with 50m to go.
4. Hanalei - Will qualify 4th and land the coveted spot beside Hydro. Will washride themselves to a strong placing but a quarter to half a boat behind second and third.
5. Piranhas - This team has traditionally underperformed early season races and finished strong. With a CCWC berth giving them extra motivation, I seriously doubt their as done as many think they are.
6. Scotia Rouge - TIDBRF has always been a big bank race, which means all the big guns will be out for this local event.

7. Manayunk - Just because their website is so annoying. I hope to see them finish lower.
8. Hammerheads - Full boat. No excuses. Good showing but beaten by a strong field.
9. Big Fish - New coach, new approach, new (half) team, same result.
10. Blades - Nice resurgence. Being Scott Ford's #1 team again must be nice.
11. New College - Darth Vader is getting very close to killing his Sith Lord (#8)
12. UC Waterdragons - Not sure if having 2 university teams is a sign of how good this division is getting or if TIDBRF's depth is only among the top 9.


11. The Blades
12. New College

Ignore the 11 and 12 at the bottom of my predictions. I copied someone else's predictions in order to have a list of teams to refer to.

Isn't Blake coaching the Blades this year?

What is your email adress?

Here are my picks:
1. Mayfair
2. CSDBC
3. Hydro
4. Scotia Rouge
5. Hanalai
6. Philly
7. Hammerheads
8. Piranhas
9. Big Fish
10. The Blades
11. Mowat Mustangs
12. New College

Interesting to see, how the predictors have simply copied each others
list of teams and shuffled them around.

Anyone seriously studied the RAcebook, found th elist of team and lanes they
were drawn ?

Some have. You'll see Pine ridge, mowat, the German team and UC sprinkled among these picks. But for about 9 teams, its pretty much a lock they'll be in the top 12.

Soothsayer you have no idea about the Blades and who their coach is. Nor do you have any idea of what happened to the Imperial Dragons, so instead of prognosticating your bull**** on the net and ask an Imp what happened and ask Scott himself where he's gone and what is keeping him busy.

Really I don't think any of us know about this Hamburg team. We're just hoping they're good because they're coming all this way.

Looking at the crew list I don't see a Pine Ridge. and why would that be a Fairport crew?
Isn't that a high school that paddled at Pickering?

Anyone know what's going on there?

Do some searching about Hamburg...

Finished 3rd in 2007 in SanFran

Relax. I got the names mixed up.

2007 TIDBRF Results Division A-D (Premier Mixed) http://www.dragonboats.com/pages/2007result.html

1. Mayfair
2. ScotiaRouge
3. Hydrophobic
4. Big Fish
5. Piranhas DBC
6. Urban Canoe Club

7. MOFOS
8. Mojo's
9. New College
10. Hammerheads
11. St. Joes
12. NDC Women

13. The Blades
14. Wahoos
15. GSK
16. Wave Cutters
17. UC Waterdragons
18. Old Skul'd

19-24. TD Twin Dragons, PA-CC, Iron Dragons, NY Wall Street, Scarlem, VICrew.

Predictions for 2008....
1. Mayfair - cream of the crop
2. Hydros - training hard, if they show up #2, if not #3
3. CSDC - podium finish
4. Hamburg - powered by CAN XX
5. Manayunk/Philly - wildcard, could be higher or lower
6. Scotia Rouge

7. Hanalei - good showing in Pickering
8. Big Fish - is that primate still on my back?
9. Drachenfurie - wildcard from Boston?
10. Hammerheads
11. Piranhas
12. The Blades

13+ in no particular order (but one of these may surprise!
Bmo first dragons, New college, Gsk, NDC Women, PA, Mowat, NY Wall St Dragons, UC Waterdragons, VICrew,

Mayfair
CSDB
Philly
Hydrophobic
Scotia Rouge
Hanalei

Big Fish
Hammerheads
Piranhas
Hamburg
Pine Ridge
Blades

A FINAL

1) Outer Harbour Dragonboat Club Mayfair Predators
2) Canadian Senior Dragonboat Club CSDC Senior Mixed
3) Hydrophobic Dragons powered by Apex Paddles
4) Scotiabank Scotia Rouge
5) Manayunk Dragonboat Racing Team (Phliadelphia) Manayunk Mixed
6) Big Fish
_____________________________________________________________

B FINAL

1) Piranhas Dragonboat Club Piranhas
2) Hanalei
3) Hamburg Syndicate Dragonboat Team
4) University of Toronto New College New Dragons
5) Outer Harbour Dragon Boat Club Outer Harbour Hammerheads
6) The Blades
_____________________________________________________________

C FINAL

1) Shockwave DBC
2) University of Toronto University College U of T Waterdragons
3) Bank of Montreal BMO First Dragons
4) Wahoos Dragon Boat Team Wahoos
5) Old Skul’d
6) Wall Street Dragons (New York) New York Wall Street Dragons
____________________________________________________________

D FINAL

1) St. Joseph’s Health Centre The Saints
2) GlaxoSmithKline GSK Firedragons
3) St. Robert Alumni Wave Cutters
4) Mount Sinai Hospital Sinai Lightning
5) TD Canada Trust TDCT Twin Dragons
6) University of Toronto Victoria College VICrew
____________________________________________________________

E FINAL

1) University of Toronto Scarborough UT Scarlem DB
2) University of Toronto Engineering Iron Dragons
3) Paddlers Anonymous Club Crew
4) Riptide Dragonboat Club
5) Smoke on the Water
6) Lagos Sports Association of Nigeria (Nigeria) Lagos Sports
____________________________________________________________

Wow, this is probably one of the most competitive year at the Island that I can remember. It's too bad that it is more of a battle for second place...

1. Mayfair
2. CSDC
3. Hydro
4. Hanalai
5. Scotia/Rouge
6. Pineridge
7. Manayunk
8. Hamburg
9. Big Fish
10. Hammerheads
11. Piranhas
12. The Blades

2007 Times-Kawartha Pine Ridge Backs

2:38.93
2:33.52
2:39.14
2:33.90

Either this team has made the greatest one year improvement in history, or people need to revisit their predictions.

1) Mayfair
2) CSDC
3) Hydro
4) Manayunk
5) Scotia Rouge
6) hanalei

7)Hamburg
8)Big Fish
9)Hammerheads
10)New College
11)Piranhas
12)Blades

After reading these predictions, I have come to the conclusion people are idiots. Here's the proof:

Manayunk - With nothing to show for it outside of a website and coming from Philly, gets way more respect than they are due.

Hamburg - Knowing absolutely nothing about them. A few people slot them in the top 12 and some even in the top 6. Someone finally does a google search and finds out they came in 3rd in San Francisco. A regatta where Jetstart can dominate.

Pine Ridge - Some theorizes pine ridge is Fairport and a pile of votes go in for Pine Ridge. If Fairport was going to race, they would show up as Fairport.

Mowat - Some have Mowat in their picks. A team registered in the High School division

LTFD - I don't see your predictions posted.

If you are so smart let's see how you do, compared to "the idiots"

Manayunk - With nothing to show for it outside of a website and coming from Philly, gets way more respect than they are due.

Yeah but the word Philly is a scary one. Really now I think half of the credit they are getting is because it has been stated they are somehow combining with the CSDC, maybe with their B paddlers who are likely top flight. The other half is that these guys were part of team USA and did get a medal in Sydney.

A reminder that Mowat has the fastest times usually up there with the A division calibre teams, but they arent allowed to place in the division itself because they are under Junior Mixed, not Premier Mixed (they only compete on Saturday)

would be fun to see mowatt race with the big boys, over two days. glad to see the young ones do so well.

Mayfair
CSDB
Philly
Hydrophobic
Scotia Rouge
Hanalei

Big Fish
Hammerheads
Piranhas
Hamburg
Blades
New College

Sorry for the mislead - I seem to remember Pine Ridge being another boat at one festival but after looking at the past island results probably not this time.

True Rankings will:
Drop Mowat due to elgibility (not rank)
Drop Pine Ridge
Pickup Water Dragons and The Saints

Power Demon will:
Drop Mowat, pickup Water Dragons

A FINAL
-------
1 - Mayfair
2 - CSDB
3 - Hydrophobic
4 - Philly
5 - Hanalei
6 - Scotia Rouge

B FINAL
-------
1 - Piranhas
2 - Hamburg
3 - Hammerheads
4 - Pine Ridge
5 - Blades
6 - Big Fish

Is CSDB themselves or is this the combined version with G&G???

Also, Scotia Rouge, is this the team from Pickering or have they combined with the Fairport U23's????

You'll find out at the start line.

Yor a FAG!!!!

It isn't G&G that CSDB are getting help from.

The whole Philly (Manayunk) and CSDC thing makes me think that the Philly team will not fair well (not in top three, that is) while CSDC will threaten Mayfair. If Philly and CSDC are working together, they'd be smart to take the top paddlers from both teams and put them on the same team, and that's likely onto CSDC since CSDC has more local talent.

Manayunk is probably all men with the CSDC female subs. Manayunk is in the open races so it looks like they have enough for that (perhaps CSDC men in there too). But the CSDC help is going to be the extras not on the CSDC A crew.

It's just logical.

Hmm, not sure if LTFD is looking at the same San Fran results, but Hamburg came 3rd in Champ Final with a pretty quick time, losing out by very little to 2 decent west coast crews. Jetstart finished 3rd in the Consolation final - hardly dominant. According to Hamburg's website, they finished 3rd at TIDBRF in 2001 and has a decent showing in most festivals they show up to. I see Hamburg in the top 6.

Scotia Rouge is the team from pickering. They just a few additional good paddlers who were not at Pickering. They'll be a bit better than Pickering and I expect should be top 10 in the regatta. They usually have a good showing at the Island.

I don't know where you got the Fairport U-23 idea from.
Maybe a couple Fairport U23s will be in it but only because of a lack of good paddlers on Frenchmen's Bay who are not PDBC.

It wasn't too long ago I read arrogant posts (sadly) from our Canadian teams about dominating the San Fran festival. It wasn't last year, but I am sure it was within the last four years. Take a look at Calgary Race Club, they were in the A final in San Francisco last year but were decimated by the top teams in Calgary when the nationals were being held. Hamburg is only a few seconds faster than CRC.