A Dragon Boat is a vessel which appears as a symbolized dragon and comes with a dragonhead at its bow and a dragon tail at the stern.
In Western hemisphere people know the sea-going ship the Vikings or Northmen used to sail the Ocean and Atlantic. The Viking’s dragon boat doesn’t relate to the boat which forms the root and basis of the modern sport of Dragon Boat Racing, which arises from the Chinese dragon boat.
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The Chinese Dragon Boat
The Dragon Boat described in the following is a vessel built according to ancient Chinese boat making art. It is a long and slim Sampan, which means the shape of the hull formed by three planks. Actually it’s more than three planks, but it gives the impression.
A Dragon Boat may have various sizes and lengths. Paddlers use single-bladed paddles to drive it forward and, apart from this way of propulsion, it has nothing in common with a canoe.
The North American Indians originally developed the Canoe and used it for daily transport and sometimes war. By contrast, the Chinese did not design the Dragon Boat for such practicalities. Looking back 5000 years, they always used it only for spiritual and sportive reasons. Even the smallest Dragon Boat is bigger than the largest canoe.
Size accounts by the number of paddlers. The smallest boat has eight paddlers and people call it a „Baby Dragon“. While in China there are boats as big as for 100 paddlers and even more, the biggest racing-boat in Hong Kong is the „Big Dragon“ with up to 56 crews.
One person, the helm, guides the boat with a steering oar by standing or sitting at the stern. With exception of the Baby Dragon, the boat has a drum and a drummer’s seat and the drummer usually sits at the front of the boat. On a larger boat he also can be located in the middle of the boat.
Every Dragon Boat has as decoration a carved dragonhead at the bow and a tail at stern.
Traditionally, the hull builds from teak and the carvings are camphor wood. These days, artificial materials such as fibre-glass and plastics are also used, especially in Western countries.
The Standard Racing Boat
Over the past decades Dragon Boat Racing developed across the world and is governed by the „International Dragon Boat Federation“. To assure holding races and competitions under same conditions, the IDBF standardized two Racing Boats:
- The Small Racing Boat with crews of 10 paddlers plus a helm and a drummer.
- The Standard Racing Boat with a crew of 20 paddlers plus helm and drummer.
Boat-makers use fibre-glass for these boats. It is a must to equip them with dragonhead and tail and to paint scales on the hull in order to maintain traditions.
Details on this you will find on the IDBF’s website https://www.dragonboat.sport
Boat Construction
Over thousands of years, one generation passes boat-building skills to the next and there’s little documentation specificity on the art of dragon boat construction.
The boats are similar to sampans and have no keel at the bottom of the hull for holding structural rips and providing stability.
Dragon Boats also have no bow- and stern-posts. Instead there’s a concave keel plank and bulkheads inside the hull with paddlers seats on top.
The bow therefore doesn’t cut the water and instead guides it through a „keel-tunnel“ shaped by the plank.
Stability comes from the bulkheads, which also help stop water pouring into the hull. The bulkheads have small holes at the bottom and allow water that does get in to flow slowly to the middle sections and to distribute its weight evenly.
The Dragon Boat has a spine running on top of the seats through the length of the boat. This spine is fixed with ropes to every bulkhead and the crew can tighten the ropes with adjustable wooden wedges. So they can stiffen the boat and give it better stability in rough conditions.
A rope loosely secures the steering oar between two sticks on a wooden bar and keeps the oar a little bit outside and away from the hull.
Boat Variation
Another dragon boat variation exists mostly in Taiwan and is called „Flag Catcher Races“. The carved dragonhead is larger and the hull wider than with a normal Dragon Boat. The boat accommodates one more person, the Flag Catcher, who sits on the dragonhead.
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