Sunday 8th May saw over 500 people come to Salford Quays to compete in glorious sunshine in the 2016 annual Salford Dragon Boat Festival.

Using four dragon boats, racing on a two-on-two format (two dragon boat racing whilst the other two boats loaded the next race), each team had a minimum of three timed races during the day. After each race the results went up on the Race the Dragon Ltd. score board for all to see and compare. Dragon boating is quick to pick up and so, very progressive in nature. By race two, teams really understood what the race involves and by round three, first timers and returning teams were competing on equal footing. This meant that until the final qualifying race has been completed, the qualifiers for the Grand Final would not be known for sure.

Each team had three qualifying races, where their best time only is used for qualification into the Grand Final. Consequently making a hash of one (or even two) races does not matter as long as the team brings in one really good result. The Grand Final was the only race of the day where all four dragon boats were raced together and (as expected), the most exciting race of the day.

Charity Fundraising

Being a charity fund raising event, each team is asked to nominate a charity and for each team member to raise at least £50 for the team's charity. As part of the fund raising process, each team Captain will need to set up a fund raising page with a recognised online provider (Just Giving, Virgin Money Giving, BT Donate etc.) and email their page's link to their team members. We will also need the link, which will be posted by your team's name in the Team Entry table below.

Each team member will need to pay their sponsorship via card using this link and for tax payers, to click the 'Gift Aid' box on the form. Gift Aid is a government funded refund based on the size of your donation (they are giving back the tax value on your donation) and NOT something extra you will be paying, so please make sure you tick the box.

At the award ceremony (where trophies for the top three teams and winner's medals for the winning team will be presented), we will also let everyone know just how much was raised by all the teams and ... which teams raised the most!

On the registration form, there will be a drop-down box where around 50 previously supported charities are listed. You can nominate any one of these or one of your own. The only requirement is, all charities nominated must be registered with the Charity's Commission.

Clicking on a logo will take you to the charity's webpage in this site