Middle Island Cup – Turns Heads in the Bay!

WORDS: JO ROYDS-JONES | IMAGES: RHKYC

On 9 May the Club managed to achieve a feat in holding, for the third consecutive year, the Middle Island Cup (MI Cup) for Dragon Boating. This is a big achievement when all other dragon boat races have been cancelled for the past couple of years due to the ongoing Covid situation.

The MI Cup is fast becoming an established event on the dragon boat racing calendar. Each year it has gained more and more support, seen in the increase in the number of teams entering. For the second year in a row the race course format covered a course of 1km and involved two tight left turns around course buoys which, for a dragon boat, is not an easy manoeuvre to do so steers play a major part in making or breaking a race.

Racing kicked off in the morning with the women’s standard boats. The Royal X women were able to quickly get their heads in to the game and proceeded to the semi-finals

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and then on to the finals where they faced SMUGs. The women gave it their all in the final and took the win! Up next was the mixed standards where Royal X unfortunately did not live up to expectations given the talent across the team and they were knocked out in the second round. Buzz Dragons put on a strong performance and went on to win the mixed standards pipping VRC to the finish line by a mere second.

Following the mixed standards was the open standard category. The Royal X men put on a solid performance progressing to the finals with ease. Saving their best performance for the finals they set the fastest time of the day by a clear margin. The best of the men’s team is still yet to come and will definitely be the team to beat at upcoming races.

The afternoon moved to small boat racing with the women kicking off the session. Once again the Royal X women were able to prove their mettle, maintaining their awesome winning streak. Then the mixed small boats and the first heat saw Royal X Blue face Royal X Yellow. It was a tight race with both crews giving it their all. In the end Royal X Blue managed to pip Yellow to the win by just one second. Royal X Blue progressed through the heats and made it through to the finals and had they not had a slight wobble around the final turn taking on a fair bit of water it would have been a close finish with VRC who looked strong all afternoon.

The Open Small boats rounded off the day’s racing. For many in the Royal X men’s small boat, it was the first time racing and they put on a valiant effort against VRC. However, VRC the eventual winners of the Open Small category were too strong this time for Royal X.

The results of the day meant that Royal X where able to regain the overall MI Cup Trophy having lost it to SeaGods the year prior. Overall, a very successful day for Royal X.

As always with events like these a big thank you to those who helped organise the race and all the volunteers on the day. Plus Patrick Bin Service Manager – Middle Island (F&B) and his team who helped water and feed the dragon boat participants on the day.