Stratford is happening this weekend and there are a few notable teams going. So, who will make the A Final (4 boats)? How will they finish? Who will win the 100m sprint? Here are the candidates:

- Hanalei (aka "Lloyd Halyk Memorial Dragons")
- Golden Plate Warriors
- Lane One- Jello Shot Express
- BMO First Dragons
- The Blades

Last predictions of 2009, how exciting!

1) Hanalei (regaining last season's form and looked good at GWN - can't see them not winning this one again)
2) Lane One (apparently will be stacked but hard to give the edge to a "thrown together" team - should make it a closer finish than last year)
3) The Blades (also significantly faster than last year but still not close to Hanalei - may surprise for a silver again depending on who's paddling with Lane One)
4) BMO First Dragons (didn't look out of place last year in the A Final against Lane One or the Blades - should hang in with the pack and may surprise to sneak in for a medal)

Forgot the 100m sprint... Hanalei should win it going away.

My prediction:

Hanalei
The Blades
Lane One
BMO

Same order for the 100m.

Which teams does Lane One usually draw their paddlers from?

Fair predictions although it is possible that North of Sixty may sneak into the final. The team is made of former and present Grand Masters from Australia.

I think its mostly Big Fish now. In the past it was Big Fish, Piranhas, Imperial Dragons, MAD, Hanalei, Tempest, BMO, Mt. Sinai, etc. Pretty much all the top teams back then.

Golden Plate is stronger this year than in the past two. They might suprise.

From their results this year Golden Plate should still be 5th behind Hanalei, Blades, Lane One and BMO... maybe even 6th if that "North of 60" team is any good (like a previous poster said). It is their home regatta (Golden Plate) but all these same other teams already beat them last year and although they may be a little faster this year, so are The Blades and BMO.

I heard Lane One will have mostly Big Fish and CSDC paddlers with a few extra ones from other teams to finish up their roster, but I didn't hear it from any of them so I'm not sure how much weight to put on that rumor. If that's true, though, they should give Hanalei a run for their money.

The 100m sprint (top 4 from round 1) is $500 prize money again!

Well, unless Lane One is seriously stacked, It'll be no contest (no offense to any other team, but Hanalei is very quick off the line).

I predict that there will be a lot of Jell-O.

That's really about as far as we have thought any of this through.

May the Jello shots be better than previous years!

I will have you know, that last years Jello's were a triumph in the chemical exploration of just how much alcohol will actually set in Jell-O. Who knew Jell-O could actually burn you.

I will bring some sweet little boy Jell-O for you. I would have said some girly jell-O, but it is clear that the gals on our team are a lot better able to handle it than you are and I didn't want to insult them

Let the Jell-O wars begin.

PS. We tend to make a lot, so feel free to stop by after and see if we can spare one. Will trade for beer and/or smooches.

Cheers

In fairness, I must admit, that my personal favorite is still the nuclear cherries that Ed brought oh those many years ago.

We shall have to see if we can get those back up here next year.

If my schedule would allow, the cherries will have to make an appearance next year! It has been marinating for 4 years now, this should power Lane One past Hanalei with no problems. Looking forward...

Nothing can beat those nasty little red cherries that Ed made!

B you are a Weenie

Any more predictions???

Who you calling a Weenie... Mr. "R"

LOL. I haven't posted on this thread yet. Someone probably thought you were me. Good shooting to Lane 1 at Stratford.

Jello Shot Express take the GOLD. Great race with Hanalei in the Final but the Jello Shooters had the edge. Nice work!

Hanelei took the 100m sprint (and the $500) but not the same margin as last year.

Results Posted:

http://www.rotarystratford.com/dragonboat/results01.htm

the final results are from 2008, but the qualifiers and semi-finals are current.

It's fully updated now.

That's only the final round. It doesn't include the first 2 rounds.

http://www.rotarystratford.com/dragonboat/results.htm

here you go lazy ass

Well, maybe if they had updated their page so that it says 2009 results instead of 2008, I would've known that those links were actually to 2009 results.

GREAT JOB Jello-Shot-Express! Pretty impressive for a throw-together team. I bet those jello shooters tasted EXTRA good after the Final.

And they say alcohol is not an incentive!

Hanalei threw the gold away... they were so concerned with Brad riding them that they stayed on the opposite side of their lane the whole way down the course, giving Lane One an easy bus ride until they shot off and beat them easily.

Hanalei was consistently the fastest team all day, and BMO did beat Lane One in their semi, but in retrospect I am sure if they could do it all over again, Hanalei would stay away from Lane One in that final.

Having said this, kudos to Lane One for winning when it mattered most, to Hanalei for winning the 100m sprint, to BMO for beating both Lane One and The Blades in their semi and staying close in that final, and to the Iron Dragons for earning a spot alongside the other three. The Blades missed out on a spot in the final by 0.5 seconds but went on to win the A Consolation:

Final Results:
1) Lane One - 2:20:93
2) Hanalei - 2:21:91
3) BMO - 2:22:76
4) "Rusty Iron" Dragons - 2:24:00

A Consol:
1) The Blades - 2:23:31
2) Golden Plate - 2:24:05
3) Chattam Kent - 2:24:25
4) ING - 2:25:13

Hanalei got Hanalei'd.

It was another great day in Stratford.

Hats off to all the other teams. Lloyd Halyk was clearly the class of the field all day, but that's Stratford and for those of us like Lane One, Lloyd Halyk, BMO, Blades and others that return every year, it's just part of the adventure.

As usual it was very well organized, they even finished ahead of schedule. Volunteers were plentiful, helpful and friendly. Free water after each race is a really nice touch as well. After a bit of a chilly morning the weather was basically perfect as well. Beer tent, chip truck, live band and lights in the porta-potties... It just doesn't get much better than that.

Cheers

PS. From my seat in lane three, Lloyd Halyks margin of victory in the 100m, looked pretty darn big

As a FYI:

Fe2O2-nH2O is an alumni-based team. Most of us are alumni from the Iron Dragons and currently paddle on a bunch of different teams, and then the last few spaces were filled out by current Iron Dragons.

It was a fun event

One word of warning about Stratford. It turns out that they replaced the swans with lasers this year, and now have giant killer squirrels.

These squirrels like to prey on the hapless winners of the festival. There have been confirmed cases of these squirrels appearing while the victors were busy consuming mass quantities of beverages in a licenced tent area (also known to some as a "beer tent"). There were no confirmed casualities this year, but we do know that one pfd was almost lost.

I was one of the victims of the "squirrels" (a.k.a Hanalei). Nice one guys...watch your back!

"Hanalei threw the gold away"

BMO rode Lane One's wash in the Semi-Final so 3rd in the Final was a justified result. Hanalei didn't throw anything away. They made a tactical error by trying to stay away from BMO, not realizing Lane One were the stronger boat.

Yes, upon returning to the area in which we "thought" we had left our gear we were informed by our friends on Lloyd Halyk about the devastating squirrel attack.

Having been in the um, "licensed area" where beverages are served for a while after already having um, tested out some of the 10 kinds of Jell-O we had, we just smiled politely and headed over to where we expected our stuff to be thinking them clearly operating on a level of humor that was now beyond us. I was thinking maybe a squirrel had gotten into the jell-o and I almost panicked.

It turns out that we were correct, but not how we thought.

What we found was a scattering of gear and then a loose gear trail leading away from camp. Towards a tree. A really big tree. And up in this tree, was a whole lot of gear. Paddles, coolers, bags, PFD's you name it. I remember looking up. Looking to the camp. Looking up again, then looking to them and saying "Awe man, I can't climb a tree now hahaa"

Luckily the "squirrels" came and helped us get the stuff back down or we may still be there staring up at that tree.

We got punk-ed. We got punk-ed real good. It was hilarious for us, so I can only imagine how funny it must have looked.

Hopefully someone will post pictures.

How did the squirrels get the stuff up there? Did they just throw them up?

ssshhh...... shush......what happens under the tree stays under the tree

its good to hear DB people having fun somtimes.

Willie, do you even paddle anymore?

That was the funniest sight ever....sometimes this sport shouldn't
take it self so seriously.

That would be Stratford. It's all about having fun at the end of the year.

Generally the best after party going with huge beer tent and live band.

Hey Gang 1st of all you spelled Stratford Wrong. thanks for all your great comments, we appreciatew it