About Our Races

The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival races are 300-meter sprint races that last between one minute and one and a half minutes depending on team skills and water conditions. Each of the community teams competes in at least 2 races. Sisters at Heart teams will race in the morning. Community teams will have one in the morning and one right after lunch. Teams have these two chances to post their fastest time. If your first race is a flop, you still have another chance! Each team’s single best time of these two races determines the 25 teams who then continue to race in the finals.

The second races after lunch are also the races for the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival Challenge Cups. The Challenge Cup races are grouped by team makeup. Health Care teams race each other; financial services teams race each other; public service teams are together and so on. It’s all for bragging rights, trophies and a lot of friendly competition.

After the Challenge Cups are complete, festival officials rank the 25 fastest teams of the day. They move on to the finals to vie for the 5 Divisional Championship trophies and ultimately for the right to say, “we’re number one!” The Citizens Bank Champ Cup is the final race between the fastest five teams. A final race schedule will be posted in the Team Information Page of the website shortly before race day so all teams will know their start times and divisions. Please check out our links to dragon boat paddling tips and techniques to learn all about racing like the wind!