40-Foot Dragons To Invade Long Wharf

Pescatore, former Olympic rower and board member of Canal Dock Boathouse, Inc., is organizing the city’s first ​“Dragon Boat Regatta” this summer. He said he sees the event as a gateway to convincing people to help him build a community by the waterfront.

The race, planned to occur concurrently with the second annual Long Wharf food truck festival June 4, is among a series of planned events revolving around the city’s under-construction boathouse, which could be in full use within two years.

The $30 million Boathouse at Canal Dock has been almost two decades in the making. When the state first started planning the expansion of the Quinnipiac Bridge, New Haven officials negotiated in 1999 that the state would pay to rebuild the historic Adee Boathouse, which got dismantled in the process, on Long Wharf.

In 2013, the City Plan Department handed over the reins for organizing the project to not-for-profit organization Canal Dock Boathouse, Inc. The first phase of the boathouse project is complete, leaving a large concrete deck within a short distance of the pier.

Now board members of that organization are trying to breathe new life into the project, and drum up people ready to sign up for memberships by the time the two-story, 30,000-square-foot building finally goes up.

Enter the dragon boats.

The tradition of dragon races comes out of Chinese culture and is growing in popularity in the U.S. Twenty people sit in rows of two wielding paddles to power each boat, which is two and a half times longer than the average canoe. A drummer gives the paddlers a steady cadence; another person steers the way. In a regatta, two teams at a time would set off from the pier to race a short distance of 200 to 300 meters and rotate out constantly with another pair.

Unlike in other water sports like rowing, kayaking or sailing, the ​“barrier to participating” is very low, Pescatore said. ​“Anyone can do it immediately.”

Because of the large number of paddlers in each boat, teams can comprise people with different levels of skill and ability, as long as at least one person knows how to steer.

The lack of a grinding motor makes it easier for paddlers to appreciate the beauty of the Long Island Sound. The experience may draw people back to the waterfront for more — persuading people to conserve its health for their personal benefits, Pescatore said.

Pescatore first saw dragon boats soon after the tradition got to this country in 1981, while he was rowing in Philadelphia. ​“I would see people out in big canoes,” he said. But he never tried it.

Canal Dock Boathouse will lease a couple of dragon boats during the year, to form a club of people who want to paddle a couple of times a week. This June, the organization plans to hire a Montreal-based company to produce the regatta, set up the race course, and provide the bright Chinese dragon heads and tails that lean out over each canoe end. ​“Hopefully it will be a yearly event,” Pescatore said.

Participating in the regatta will cost $2,000 per team, about $100 per person, which includes a few hours of practice paddling the harbor before spending about six hours racing and watching other teams. Pescatore plans to enlist companies that want to find a bonding activity for their employees, as well as public school students and teachers.

He wants a spectacle. The city’s second annual New Haven Food Truck Festival will likely draw crowds again to Long Wharf; he envisions the crowds gathering on the pier and walk along the shore to see the dragons pulse forward neck and neck. For some people, it will be the first time they have stepped foot on the pier, Pescatore said. He’s hoping it won’t be the last.

Click below to hear Pescatore and fellow board member Jonathan Wharton discuss their plans for the boathouse and how the water might fit into the city’s push for alternative transportation.