Dragon Boat Victoria and City of Melbourne present Lunar New Year Dragon Boat Festival at Victoria Harbour, Docklands on Sunday 25 February 2024. 

The festival is a blend of tradition and heart-stopping action as the spectacular dragon boats race along Victoria Harbour to the beat of the drums. These experiences bond team members together for years to come. While thousands of people cheer on paddlers, others come to enjoy cultural performance, lion dance, family activities and food trucks.

Join us and celebrate this special tradition, dragon boating and the spirit of friendly competition at this Dragon Boat Festival!

Sunday 25 February - Corporate and Community Racing 

Entry Fee (per team) for Corporate and Community teams:

Corporate: $1500

University: $800

Community & Charity Group: $1000

VIC & Interstate Breast Cancer Participants (BCP) Clubs: Please contact Dragon Boat Victoria

International Dragon Boat Clubs: Please contact Dragon Boat Victoria

*Entry Fee includes cost of one 2-hour training session prior to race day, individual sport injury insurance to all waiver listed members of a team, use of personal flotation device and paddles on training and race days, and a space (3m x 3m) for your team along Victoria Harbour facing the race course.

Training Sessions:

All teams must complete a minimum of one training session which can be done on race day or a date in January/February prior. The cost of this training session is included in the entry fee.

Teams can purchase an additional three (3) training sessions up to a maximum of four (4) training sessions per team. Each additional training session costs $200 per session. *A minimum of 14 paddlers is required for a training session to proceed.

Please submit how many training sessions will be required on registration.

Marquee Hire:

Teams can bring a marquee/tent or hire a marquee (3m x 3m) for the space from DBV. Hire fee is $200 per marquee. Please submit how many marquees will be required on registration.

If you have any enquiries about the event and/or registration, please contact us via email administration@dragonboatvictoria.com.au

Sunday 25 February - clubs and members racing 

Cost for members: $45 for Adults & $22.50 for Student/Juniors 

Spectators: Free

Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm

Categories: 

20's Premier: Open, Women and Mixed

20s: Senior A: Open, Women and Mixed

20s: Senior B: Open, Women and Mixed

20s Senior C: Open, Women and Mixed

20s: Breast Cancer Paddlers, All Cancer Participants

10s: Premier and Senior: Open and Womens

Entertainment:

Lion/Dragon Dance at 12pm to 12:30pm

Roving entertainment from 11am to 1pm

Food and beverage

From 7am

Entry Rules

For this Lunar New Year regatta, our aim is to maximise the number of races that can be held during the day and to ensure fairness in the number of races for participants.  In order to achieve this, the following category entry rules will apply.

Please review your teams before entering them and ensure you only enter races which the club is confident about competing in – withdrawing from races on the day of the regatta is extremely disruptive. 

It is important to note the Regatta Committee (ROPAG) can only fully determine the race program once they have received all final entries from clubs. Once final entries have been received, categories will be confirmed. Final entries will close on 18 February 2024. 

1            Categories to be offered will include Mixed, Womens and Open 20s in Premier and Seniors

2            To encourage the participation of small clubs a 10s category is also offered for Mixed, Womens and Open events for Premier and Seniors

3            Clubs that enter a Mixed, Women or Open 20's crew can also enter one only 10's Mixed, Womens or Open crew

4            Depending on race entries, handicapping will be applied in a number of categories

• For LNY we have two categories only – Premiers and Senior
• In 10s  and some 20s boats Premiers and Seniors will race together.  Results will be handicapped against the following age groups - Senior A, B and C. 
• Due to Rev Sport specifications, you need to enter in your age group.  Please follow age groups by-laws when entering your team on Rev sport..
• Entry of 10s boats – you can only enter one 10s boat ( mixed, women’s and open).  You cannot enter a 10s  Premiers and Seniors crew.  You can use paddlers from your 20s boat to backfill your 10s boat.
• Smaller clubs can consider combining in 20s boats for either Premiers or Senior 20s.

Handicapping

The current understanding for DBV Regattas is that a category will not run unless at least three teams are in the category. In order to provide races for all Senior categories (A, B and C), our Regattas combine the three senior age groups into one senior category.  In an attempt to ‘level the playing field’, we use a handicap system so that the older paddlers are not disadvantaged in any race against younger paddlers. The handicapping system works by providing rounds, not heats and finals. Usually, there are three rounds but sometimes only two, depending on how busy the program is. Times from rounds are added together, and then the handicap is applied. The handicapping system can also be applied where there is a single race, e.g. the 5.4km race at Geelong. The handicapping system does not apply where we have heats and finals.

Before introducing the handicapping system in Victoria, work was undertaken by Chris Alexandrou, Serghei Cucsa and Philippa McLean to examine the race results from AusChamps over a number of years and to look at the patterns in times. This advice was forwarded to DBV and accepted for use over a couple of seasons, then to be reviewed in the light of experience and Victorian results compared to the national trends. In Seniors’ events, where Senior A, B and C age crews might be competing against each other the following formula is used:

• Senior A = 1.00 i.e. the time recorded by a crew is assessed at the actual time recorded
• Senior B = 0.97 i.e. the time is multiplied by 0.97 to get a revised/handicapped time
• Senior C = 0.92 i.e. the time is multiplied by 0.92 to get a revised/handicapped time

DBV used the handicapping system in some regattas last season and will continue to trial implementation during this season. DBV is continually reviewing results to determine if the current formula is appropriate.

Victorian By-Laws and other relevant documents

View here

Event displays and trailers

• Victorian Fisheris Authority: https://vfa.vic.gov.au/

Entry timelines

• Crew entries closing Sunday 18 February 11:59pm
• Draft draw released no later than Wednesday 14 February 11:59pm
• Final draw published no later than Friday 16 February 11:59pm
• Crew modification closes Sunday 25 February 8:00am

On water course

View here

Race Draw

Event Permits:

Boating Activity exemptions, view here

Parks Victoria, view here

Place of Public Entertainment permit (POPE), Not required

Notice to River Users view here

City of Melbourne

Become an event partner

For more information on partnership opportunities or media, please contact administration@dragonboatvictoria.com.au

  Government Partner