2nd Jamaica Dragon Boat Festival launched in Port Royal

The Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) launched the second Jamaica Dragon Boat Festival on Friday at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Port Royal (formerly the Morgan’s Harbour Hotel), against the backdrop of the glistening waters of the Kingston Harbour. The festival will be held next Saturday and Sunday at the same venue.

Vincent Chang, past president of the CBA and chairman of the CBA Dragon Boat Festival Committee, welcomed the launch of the second event. The inaugural festival attracted a large appreciative audience that filled the waving gallery and dock last year.

“I am here because we do at the Chinese Benevolent Association believe this is a festival that should be here in Jamaica forever because the Dragon Boat has a lot of things we believe can help build the Jamaican community. There’s a lot of things in there, and of course, strengthen our ties, the Jamaica-China friendship, and this is what we’re all about.”

Chang said that this year should be “well, exactly the same and more. I think we’ll have more teams, we’ll have tighter races. Now that we’ve been doing this for a year, some of the teams have been abroad, a lot more experience, and I do believe we’ll get more interest, and we’re hoping to get more interest from the wider Jamaican community.”

“We should see some very, very spectacular racing. As you know, we have dragon boats that are decorated like the mythical dragon with a head and a tail, and teams of 10 paddling with strength, dexterity, but most of all coordination. So we should see some very exciting races happening.”

The event was endorsed by the Chinese Embassy and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF). Both entities fielded teams last year, with the JDF and CBA being joint winners after a very exciting finish.

An increased number of teams will be competing this year, including three from overseas – the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago. The full list of teams for this year are Baha Mar Buoys and Gulls, BCDS Buccaneers (both from the Bahamas), Vanguard Dragon Boat Club (of Trinidad & Tobago), CBA (2 teams), Chinese Embassy, Hydra Jamaica, McKay Security, iPrint A, iPrint B, JDF Coast Guard, Port Royal Blazers (women’s team), Port Royal Blazers, The Generals 1, The Generals 2, LASCO, AFRESH and CONFUCIUS Institute.

The local teams have been in training since last year’s festival, in preparation for this year’s event. They expect to get stiff competition from the overseas-based teams who are more experienced.

Joseph Miller of the CBA team that was joint winner with the JDF Coast Guard in 2025 was very upbeat about his team’s chances of retaining their title. “(You) can expect more of the same. I believe we have a strong cadre of persons representing us. Some of them are Chinese, and it’s in their blood. It’s in their blood so it’s natural to them. The others, which are of my kind, which are different nationalities but we are all sports people, and we believe in sports. We believe that we can win because of our ability and the sports that we do.”

He implored everyone to come and see his team perform at the festival “because we are sure to win. We know we are winners. We all believe in ourselves, and we have the best form out there, so look out for us. We’ll be there at the front, and everybody else will be behind.”

Neil Yap Sam, who is one of the conceptualizers of the festival as well as one of the coaches, can be found at the training base at the Grand Hotel Excelsior (formerly Morgan’s Harbour Hotel) multiple times per week conducting training sessions. He encourages everyone to learn dragon boat racing “because for your upper body it’s a good exercise, even for breast cancer. In Jamaica for breast cancer we know it as running – 4K and things like that. On the other side of the world, like starting from New Zealand its dragon boat. It’s a proven fact from research that it helps them to recover from breast cancer from the upper body exercise and stuff like that. Yes, I would recommend it to anybody.”

The opening ceremony is scheduled for next Saturday morning with the dotting of the eye – a distinctly Chinese event which is done before major activities. The heats will then get underway. The competition continues on Sunday based on how the teams perform on the first day. It will close with the awards ceremony in the afternoon.

Several sponsors are on board this year, including the Grand Hotel Excelsior (venue sponsor), The Chinese Community of Jamaica, Lasco Distributors, Wisynco, NCB, ATL Automotive, National Bakery, Mayberry Investments, iPrint Ja, East ROC and Afresh Supermarket.

Dragon boat racing is described as a unique team sport that began in the Chinese villages over 2,000 years ago. It requires team members to paddle in complete synchrony as one unit to the beating of a drum in the bow of the boat. It is an established sport that is played in over seventy-five countries.