Kia ora koutou,

The NZDBA wishes to inform you of several changes to the National Championships regatta for 2025.

Certain racing divisions will be removed from the roster and will therefore not be available for entry in 2025, a new division is being added and changes are being made to an existing  division. Also, changes are being made to the Rules of Entry for teams.

These changes are being made to:

• Reflect historical divisional entry trends
• Meet requests for divisional changes from our Dragon Boating Community
• Simplify the entry process for teams to our National Championships regatta

Changes to Divisions in 2025.

Club Racing Division changes

• • The Premier Open Standard Boat division will NOT be raced in 202
  • The Senior A Women’s (40+) Standard Boat division will be ADDED in 2025 in all 3 distances (200m, 500m, 2km)

Regional Representative Racing Division changes:

These divisions will NOT be available in 2025:

• • • Senior B 50+ Open Small Boat
    • Senior C 60+ Open Small Boat

There will also be a change to the distance of the following division:

• • • Senior C (60+) Women's Small Boat division will now race the 500m race distance and not the 200m race distance.

Changes to Rules of Entry in 2025.

The following Rules of Entry for teams/crews restricting entry to certain divisions will no longer apply in 2025.

Standard Boat Teams

This rule will NOT apply in 2025:

If a Mixed team cannot field a Standard Boat, they may express their interest to enter a Small Boat Mixed Team by emailing: brooke@nzdba.co.nz for consideration (Refer to 9.2 Entry Conditions of Rules of Racing (2021).
Teams will now be able to enter a Small Boat Mixed team if they cannot field a Standard Boat crew, without the need to apply for consideration to do so.

Small Boat Teams
Rules that will NOT be applied in 2025:

If entering a Standard Boat Mixed team, you may only split down into either the Small Boat Women and/or Small Boat Open categories (not Small Boat Mixed).

EXCEPTION RULE

The only exception to this rule is if you enter a Small Boat Mixed crew with dedicated paddlers, caller, and sweep that are not on the crew list for the Standard Boat Mixed team. 

Standard Boat teams wishing to split down into Small Boat crews/teams will now be able to split down into whatever Small Boat divisions they wish to (Small Boat Mixed,  Small Boat Open and/or Small Boat Women’s).

NOTE: The rules regarding double-rostering of athletes (paddlers, sweeps and callers/drummers) between crews will still apply. This is to ensure that racing is not delayed due to rostering clashes.