Celebrate the Chinese Lunar Year 2024 with a Dragon Boat Experience

The Lunar New Year festivities begin with a traditional Lion Dance, in which the lion awakens the dragon for the new year, the Year of the Dragon. The show starts at 10:00 AM on the front lawn of Berkeley Yacht Club. Observe the skill of the dancers – especially the person in back. This is followed by ongoing demonstrations of traditional holiday cooking, music and songs, and poster exhibits about ancient Chinese maritime commerce and technology.

But the star of the event is the dragon boat. The Berkeley Racing Canoe Center offers a rare opportunity for people of all ages to experience the speed, power and teamwork of a full-size dragon boat in action. The boats are functional replicas of the craft that plied China’s 27,000 miles of navigable rivers for thousands of years; This is how people traveled when speed and comfort were the priorities. The dragon boat, or very similar craft in other regions of the world with great rivers, has been described as “the 747 of ancient civilizations.”

BRCC will fit you for a lifejacket, put a paddle in your hands, and help you into one of our dragon boats. We will show you and your friends or family how to propel the boat around the Berkeley Marina – it’s all about teamwork and timing. There is no lower age limit, as long as we can find (or if you bring) a lifejacket that fits the small ones.

The boats will depart from the Berkeley Yacht Club guest dock, immediately to the left after you go down the O-Dock gangway. Consider that there may be a small amount of water splashing aboard, if we are all paddling hard, don’t wear anything that would be damaged by a little salt spray.

You can also try out for the DragonMax team! Dragon boat racing is the ultimate team sport: There are no heroes and no bums; The entire team wins or loses. More info at www.dragonmax.org.

Sponsored by the Berkeley Yacht Club and the Berkeley Racing Canoe Center.