Dragon Boat race in Bradenton ...

 The Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club Dragon Boat team at work!

On March 29th, we participated in our first actual Dragon Boat competition in Bradenton, Florida, on the Manatee River.  They put us in the fasted category, Class A, because we're a club-run boat, but we clearly weren't Class A.  In our first race, 350 meters, we were almost cut off by the winning boat at the start , and we came in fourth out of four boats.  (I submit primarily because we were swamped by the winning boat's wake when they cut us off, but protests don't seem to be proffered.  It's not like sailboat racing.) 

Then the organizers cut the race length to 150 meters because of increasing wind and chop.  Still in Class A, we paddled a good race, coming in third.  With our combined race times, we were just .12 seconds off of getting into the trophy race.  But, alas, that .12 seconds still put us out of contention.  All in all it was a great time!