WTW Hong Kong teams support Stanley Dragon Boat event

WTW cultivates a workplace environment full of teamwork, team spirit, collaboration, and healthy wellbeing. This was certainly showcased by WTW Hong Kong as they made a splash at the Stanley Dragon Boat Championships.

"We're proud to have won a trophy and 4th place in the Mixed Silver Bowl Final! Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way!" shared WTW.

Celebrating the Tuen Ng Festival

Stanley has long been an important settlement for fisher folk and dragon boat racing has always been a very popular way to celebrate the annual Tuen Ng Festival.

In the late 1960s, the local races started to attract the interest of ex-pats living in the Stanley area and the event as we know it today was born. The Chinese teams always dominated the event, so to make the races fairer for all in 1975 an ex-pat division was added, followed shortly after by the introduction of a Ladies' Competition.

The early races were originally held in Stanley Bay facing Tin Hau Temple. However, to accommodate the ever-increasing scale of the event, the Championships are now run from Stanley Main Beach with competitors and spectators enjoying themselves in a wonderful party atmosphere.

Diverse nationalities of teams

The diverse nationalities of the teams competing remain a unique feature of the Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships. The event holds the record for having the highest competitor turnout and is the largest one-day dragon boat event in the world. Having earned a worldwide reputation, the event was listed as international event by the International Dragon Boat Federation, the sport's governing body.

The Championships are organized by the Stanley Residents Association on a low-budget-positive-return principle, so most of the work is done by volunteers. Revenue raised from the entry fees and donations are used to cover all the expenses of running the Championships, ordering new boats and maintenance with the surplus used to subsidize community service and promoting sports and recreation activities in and around Stanley.

Dragon Boat activity at Stanley Main Beach is popular

Stanley Dragon Boat Association now owns the largest boat storage rack in Hong Kong. The association self-designed and built the rack with its lifting device. It can stack up to four layers of dragonboats and can accommodate 36 boats in total.

The rack, together with storage and canopy facilities, was first installed in April 2006. In May 2007 the base underwent the first extension project. A steel viewing platform that can seat 100 people was built. This is an important new chapter in the history of the Association. During the Warm-up Races on 27 May 2007 it was first used as the Race Control Center with a very positive outcome.

Since 2001, when the Government officially granted the Association the new piece of leased land, business and hardware grew more dramatically. 2007 was a milestone. Besides structural changes at the training base, and a world-record of 208 teams competing in one single day, in 2007 it also procured six more second-hand boats for practice, and two new boats for racing. As such the Association owns the largest fleet in the territory - in total 43 boats (42 medium-sized racing boats, one big-sized one to hold 50 people), all built with traditional teak wood structure.

Stanley Main Beach has long been regarded as the cradle for dragonboaters. Changes and healthy growth of the Training Base in the past few years provides even better soil for this mission and vision to be consolidated.