I fell in love with dragon boating from my first stroke. With an undergraduate degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Sports Science, I found dragon boating is the epitome of both disciplines. The sport is an ultimate test of collaboration, and I was entranced by the synchronicity of 20 humans working together and the intricate dynamics of teamwork as a form of art.
Initially, I had little talent for dragon boating so I focussed on understanding the science behind the sport to improve myself through a scientific approach. The process deepened my understanding of dragon boating as I became more fascinated with the potential for increased boat speed in the water. Dragon Boat has deep cultural roots and has largely been unexplored by science, offering opportunities and vast potential for improvement. By examining and measuring cause and effect, and reasoning about the underlying scientific principles we can paddle even faster. Let’s start by examining the dragon boat from first principles.
The Science Behind Dragon Boat Speed
The speed of a dragon boat is determined by the power and weight of the paddlers and the friction of the water against the boat.
As friction is dependent on the wetted surface area, the deeper the hull (the main body of a ship) is in the water, the more friction it must overcome. This means, the heavier the boat, the larger the wetted surface area and the greater the friction force.
To overcome the friction of water, paddlers need to generate more power paddling or be lighter in weight to reduce the dead load of the dragon boat. On average, a fully loaded 20-crew dragon boat can weigh almost two tonnes (that’s the weight of two small cars).
Maintaining a high power-to-weight ratio crew can make the boat travel faster in the water against friction, that’s our first principle of dragon boat.
DB 101: The speed of the boat depends upon the power-to-weight ratio of the paddlers