Wellington Dragon Boat Festival (in conjunction with NZDBA) will run the 2024 NZDBA Dragon Boat NZ Schools Nationals Competition on 3 March 2024.

See https://www.dragonboatfestival.org.nz/schoolsnationals [Aoraki is posting this as an event, for visibility by our teams - times etc are an estimate - see www.dragonboatfestival.org.nz for details]

Schools Nationals is going to happen alongside the Wellington Dragon Boat Festival Youth Competition. Youth teams from around Aotearoa will race against each other and across their divisions. Medals will be up for grabs with one set being awarded to the national winners of each division and a separate set for the Wellington winners.

The focus of the event is for school aged dragon boaters to have the chance to participate and have fun. Enjoyment is the highest priority.

Each team gets three heats and one final. In heats teams will race against crews from other divisions and then finals are division-based. The best two heat times determine which final a team lands in and which lane they are in for their final.

There are five lanes and the racecourse is approximately 300m. At the start line there are both drummers and sweeps ropes to keep boats aligned even when it’s windy.

Unfortunately, no Schools from Aoraki Region attended this event (but several adult teams raced at the Adults day on Saturday.