On Friday, 41 members of Exe-Calibre stacked their cars/camper vans with waterproofs, many layers of clothing, blankets and enough carbohydrate-laden food to fuel a small army! Some more hardy souls also packed tents and sleeping bags, while other (more sensible) paddlers took the infinitely more comfortable option of a hotel bed for the two nights.

Saturday morning saw the whole team at HPP (Holme Pierre Point) Watersports Centre, a regatta course with lovely wide lanes, electronic timing, on-site cafeteria, working toilets (with ample toilet roll), a working tannoy system and many other modern conveniences not usually seen at a BDA event! An unwelcome addition to all these lovely things was the presence of a bitterly cold, biting cross wind - Aha! Now we felt more at home. All we needed now was pouring rain and some lovely big waves......

However, the weather was kindish (and occasionally sunny) and the water was calmish (phew!) and we settled into the Excali-camp, cocooned nicely under our shiny events shelter, girding ourselves for two days of dragon boat racing highs and lows, and lots and lots of races. After weighing in Saphira (265kg - she needs to go on a diet!), the boat was rigged and ready to carry our record-breaking number of crews (Open, Blades, Mixed, Maidens, Seniors & Juniors).

Typically, BDA controversy marked our quest for success - with 10 minutes scheduled between our first two 200m open races, we had hoped that we could do a quick swap from Blades to Open and avoid the need for a pool boat/helm in the first race of the day! Not so - the cross-wind meant that helms (and the starters) were struggling to keep to the programme, so we did not get 10 minutes, and despite an incredibly slick change-over the Open crew arrived at the start line a teensy bit late and received a 2 second time penalty. Oh Joy! Thankfully, this really made the whole crew very, very angry - the boat shot off the start like a rocket and we recorded a time of 51.52, finishing a mere 0.10 of a second behind Kingston Royals, and still qualifying for the Cup, despite our 2 second penalty. No harm done. In the meantime, the Blades recorded 55.78, qualifying themselves for the Plate.

The Maidens took to the water, looking absolutely gorgeous and cruised to victory in their heat, with an excellent 200m time of 57.23 - qualifying for the Ladies Cup Final as first fastest (however, Kingston Ladies did get a 5 sec time penalty for actually missing their race!). The 200m heats/reps saw Blades and Open battling it out for a Major final - the Blades qualified for their Plate Major Final, winning their rep in 56.43 - a brilliant achievement, with the Open just missing out on the Cup Major final by 0.22 sec and qualifying for the 200m Cup Minor Final.

The Blades battled hard in their 200m final, just being pipped by Kingston Pretenders for 6th place. The Open crew completely dominated the Cup Minor final, winning by a clear 1.5 secs with 51.98 and pushing Batchworth Beasties into 2nd place. The Cup Major times were all under 50 sec, so the Open crew need to shave off another 2 seconds to be competitive at that level next year.

The Ladies 200m Cup saw the Maidens - still looking gorgeous - fighting hard against Kingston, Typhoon, Crusaders, Worcester and Amathus, recording a great time of 57.86 to gain second place behind Kingston. An absolutely brilliant result - how much potential have our Maidens got? Did I also mention that we are all gorgeous?

Saturday afternoon saw Exe-Calibre Mixed begin their quest for 200m glory. Also, our three Exe-Calibre Juniors were welcomed into the Crusaders U18 and took first place in the junior 200m with 57.75 sec. Unfortunately for Scott, the Senior/Junior Cup was combined - he was therefore disgusted when the 50/50 Exe-Calibre/Crusaders Senior crew beat the young un's - with a time of 57.67 sec. Obviously, Westy and Grahame made the most of this - taunting Scott mercilessly! Shame.

Exe-Calibre Mixed continued a fantastic run of success in the 200m recording 53.26 sec in the heat, 54.51 sec in the rep to qualify for the Cup Minor final, which they then won in 54.08 sec.

So, with some paddlers having done 9 x 200m races, it was time to take on the 1000m! The Blades were in a really tough heat taking on Secklow 100, Batchworth, Typhoon Tigers and Amathus Bees. They recorded a really worthy time of 5 min 11.23 sec. The Open took on Three River Serpents, Worcester, Amathus, Notts Anaconda and Amathus Bees and fought tooth and nail with Worcester all the way down the course, recording an excellent time of 4 min 28.13 sec, ahead of Worcester with 4 min 31.42 and qualifying for Exe-Calibre's first ever CUP MAJOR FINAL!!! Worcester picked up the pace in the final, and we were beaten into sixth place, but with an incredibly consistent time of 4 min 29 sec after a whole day of racing! The final was won by Amathus in an amazing 4 min 6.11 sec - so, there's a goal for us next year!

A fabulous day of racing, great commitment from all the crews and some lovely trophies won.

Then, a well deserved hot shower (several people really did need defrosting) and a very tasty dinner at the Goose. Job done!!

Sun 26 Sept - 500m

The day began with some rather creaky, stiff paddlers climbing into Saphira for the 500m mixed competition. Definitely feeling the previous days racing they nonetheless had a cracking first race - waking everyone up with 2 min 10.53 sec and making Worcester work hard all the way down the course.

The rep saw us battling Three River Serpents and coming in second to them with 2 min 12.00 sec - however, this time saw us as fastest runner up, and qualifying for Exe-Calibre's second ever CUP MAJOR FINAL!

We lined up on the start line with the big guns - Kingston, Amathus, Worcester - and fought hard down the course. However, the big guns had it on the day and we had to be content with sixth place and 2 min 14.31. Amathus took the crown in 2 min 4.19 sec. The 500m competition then saw the Exe-Calibre Juniors and Seniors, racing together to try and even up the score from the 200m. Clearly the lighter boat of the juniors was an advantage over the longer distance and this time they beat the seniors by a clear 6 seconds. So, another first for the juniors and a second place to Kingston for the combined Exe-Calibre/Crusaders senior crew.

In the final race of the morning, the Maidens headed out for their 500m race, to be informed at the start (with five teams in attendance) that it had been postponed and to go back and keep warm. Unfortunately, this had not been communicated to some of the officials, who then decided to shout quite loudly and scarily at us for daring to come back.....verbal warning anyone?!

So, having had a lovely, long warm up paddling to the start, then back, and then back to the start, the Maidens were ready to take on the rest of the women paddlers in the country. And take them on we did - helm, drummer and paddlers worked together in perfect synchronicity (looking gorgeous by the way) fighting tooth and nail with Amathus all the way. Kingston lead from the front and Amathus just pipped the Maidens into third place, with a very respectable time of 2 min 25.83 sec, just 0.20 sec behind Amathus. So, Exe-Calibre ladies - some work to be done to gain the 8 seconds we need to give Kingston 'Pink' Ladies (2 min 17.76 sec) a run for their money next season.

The Nationals moved into its crescendo with the open 500m races on Sunday afternoon. The starts had got slightly better (emphasis on the word slightly), except when the Dutch man decided to take over with his rather sharp 'come on' command being especially useful to helms on the start line.

The Blades were off first in their heat, and to avoid any chance of time penalties jumped into Nott Anaconda's pool boat, which was actually lighter than Saphira. In fact, it had quite a lot of pebbles in it (however, fewer we suspected than it had in it on Saturday) to make up the ballast to 250kg. Paul S decided to try and cheat by attempting to leap out of the boat halfway down the course - fortunately Simon managed to foil his escape attempt and drag him back into the boat. Supremely professional, the rest of the crew barely missed a beat and recorded a time of 2 min 24.60 sec.

The Open crews first heat was somewhat less eventful and they put up a good fight against Worcester (see you next season guys!) and went sub 2 min 10 for the first time in Exe-Calibre Nationals history - 2 min 9.16 sec - a great improvement on last year's best time of 2 min 14 sec. So, it was down to the reps to see which finals the crews would be placed in - the Blades battled hard and qualified for the Plate Minor final. The Open took a tactical move and dropped to third gear for their first rep - leaving Worcester and Amathus to exhaust themselves (hopefully!). The final rep saw Exe-Calibre Open and Worcester battling it out once more for the Major Final - Worcester, once again just coming out on top, and the Open crew was in the Cup Minor Final.

So, the last two race events for the day saw two Exe-Calibre teams lining up - the Blades in their Plate Minor against Typhoon Fury, Powerhouse and Amathus Wasps and the Open in the Cup Minor Final, with Henley, Crusaders, Raging Dragons, Notts Anaconda and Typhoon Tigers. Both races brought emphatic wins for the Exe-Calibre paddlers, sailing over the line several seconds ahead of the rest of the field and delighted with a brilliant, winning end to a fantastic weekend. In the words of Chrissie on the drum "You are the winners. Enjoy it." A great effort from everyone present meant that the camp was quickly cleared away and the whole team was expectantly waiting for the presentations. What could we have won? How much bling would we be taking home for our efforts?

The success of the weekend can be summarised as follows:

Exe-Calibre Maidens
2nd in 200m, 3rd in 500m
2nd overall in Ladies Cup

Exe-Calibre/Crusaders Seniors
2nd in 200m, 2nd in 500m
2nd overall in Senior Cup

Crusaders/Exe-Calibre Juniors
1st in 200m, 1st in 500m
1st overall in Junior Cup

Exe-Calibre Blades
Qualified for Plate Major Final in 200m
1st in Plate Minor Final in 500m

Exe-Calibre Open
1st in Cup Minor Final in 200m
1st in Cup Minor Final in 500m
Qualified for Cup Major Final in 1000m

Exe-Calibre Mixed
1st in Cup Minor Final in 200m
Qualified for Cup Major Final in 500m

Also, some awesome club record breaking times recorded over a fair, regatta course:

Maidens: 200m - 57.23 sec, 500m - 2:25.83
Blades: 200m - 55.53 sec, 500m - 2:24.60, 1000m - 5:11
Open: 200m - 51.52 sec, 500m - 2:09.16, 1000m - 4:28
Mixed: 200m - 53.20 sec, 500m - 2:10.53

And most importantly, Exe-Calibre Dragon Boat Club was awarded 'Most improved team of the year'. Fabulous results, fantastic team spirit, huge cheesy grins all round. A brilliant end to a record-breaking race season. Huge thanks and well dones to all.