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![]() Dragon Boating was introduced to South Africa in 1992 when two beautiful flag-catching dragon boats were presented to Cape Town by our sister city I'lan County, Taiwan. To celebrate this, a group of canoeists and lifesavers raced and won a best of three against the visiting Taiwanese Navy fleet who had delivered the boats to South Africa. In 1995 DBSA cc was formed to run corporate regattas in the V&A Waterfront. From these a team was gathered to compete in the First World Championships in China. This was followed by the 1st Cape Town International, with seven teams in the international section (Britain's Royal Raspberries and Germany's Holstein Hamburg, the newly formed Cape Town Paddlesnappers and Pirates teams, a team of top canoeists, the Portuguese Youth League and an SA Navy team). There were also four corporate teams. All racing was done using the wooden flag-catching boats but without the flag-catching finishes. The following year six fibreglass racing dragon boats (financed by Old Mutual) were launched at the V&A just in time for the 2nd Cape Town Dragon Boat Racing International in November 1996. Amongst our visitors this year was a team of Royal Marines. DBSA continued to organise annual Cape Town Internationals until 2004, with the number of teams in both the International and the Corporate sections growing exponentially. Teams from Great Britain, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, United States and Germany became regular visitors and for the 2004 CCWC in Cape Town, these countries were joined by teams from Russia, Canada, Holland, Switzerland and Australia. Including corporates in Internationals not only helped to finance the events, but happily several of the Corporate crews decided to take it up as a regular sport and form their own clubs. The first of these was Safmarine team who in 1998 became the Safdragons (now Mujaji) while the German School (DSK) team has been a club challenge to all South African adult teams since 2003. In 2003, the Western Cape Dragon Boat Association (WCDBA) was given custodianship of the City's two wooden flag-catchers. Regular league racing was instituted in 2006 using these flag catchers. They are not only very beautiful boats, but the final act of the flag-catchers leaping up over the dragon's head and stretching as far as they can to catch the flag introduces an extra element of drama. ![]() A very special team in Cape Town is the amaBele Belles; Africa's first breast cancer survivor team. A promise made in Rome 2002 to Australia's Dragon's Abreast was finally realised in early May, 2006. The Belles trained stoically throughout our southern winter and competed very successfully at the first BCS World Championship in Singapore. Their trophy and medals were however just a symbol of their inner triumph over cancer and an affirmation of their joy in life. Singapore was a very special experience for all who took part. ![]() |
Dragon boat racing in the West
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