dragon boat tragedy in cambodia

until this tragedy, i have not realised that, in most instances, the paddlers do not wear life vests. i studied some pictures of dragon boat races and found only in one picture were the paddlers wearing life-vests. it was a team of female paddlers.

i asked my good friend who is involved in coaching, if this - no life vests worn - was the standard practice. according to him, it has been done all the time, even in singapore. i have also seen pictures where the rowers were all bare bodied.

then i asked him another question: aren't all dragon boat participants supposed to be able to swim? not all of them are competent swimmers; some are not very strong or good swimmers. according to him, in that kind of situation, with strong currents and swirling waters, even a good swimmer could find himself in trouble.

the team that went to cambodia was a hastily assembled team. it comprised members from the universities, polytechnics, armed forces, macpherson dragon boat club and others. the incident happened after they had completed a race and when they decided to continue with a practice run.

the standard crew complement of a contemporary dragon boat is around 22, comprising 20 paddlers in pairs facing toward the bow of the boat, 1 drummer or caller at the bow facing toward the paddlers, and 1 steerer or tiller(helm) at the rear of the boat, although for races it is common to have just 18 paddlers.

of the 22 members, 17 were rescued and 5 are still missing.

the prime minister went on national tv to say that he was saddened by what happened and that he shared the deep concerns of the families members of the 5 missing singaporeans.