Dragon boat crews race 200m sprints on Kallang Basin this weekend, on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2026, at the Singapore Regatta Waterfest. The regatta is run jointly by the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA) and The Kallang Group from the Water Sports Centre at The Kallang, and the waterfront festival around it opens a day earlier, on Friday 13 November.
Crew registration closed on 19 October, so the racing is for teams already entered. For anyone who wants a paddle in hand rather than a seat on the bank, The Kallang runs a paid Neon Night Paddle on the Saturday evening.
A straight 200m on six lanes
Every race is a straight 200m sprint down a buoyed six-lane course, started from pontoons. Where entries allow, a category runs through heats, a repechage, semi-finals and a final; smaller fields go straight to a direct final. Any category with three crews or fewer is cancelled, so four is the minimum for a race to happen.
Two boat sizes are in use. The standard DB22 carries 20 paddlers, a drummer and a steersperson. The small DB12 carries 10 paddlers with the same drummer and steersperson. Mixed crews must keep close to an even split: at least nine men and nine women in a DB22, and at least four of each in a DB12.
Saturday and Sunday
Saturday is mostly a big-boat day. The morning session has the SRW Open, with room for 30 crews, alongside SRW Women, Tertiary Mixed, Under-18 Mixed and Government Agencies Men. The afternoon brings the SRW Mixed, also with 30 slots, plus Tertiary Open, the International Dragon Boat Community (IDBC) Mixed, Under-18 Open and Government Agencies Mixed.
Sunday switches to the DB12. The morning has SRW Women with 24 slots, the Masters Open, Corporate Open and Women, PA Grassroots Open and IDBC Open. The afternoon has the Senior Mixed, IDBC Women, Corporate Mixed, PA Grassroots Mixed, Tertiary Women and the PA Adaptive Open, which goes back into the DB22.
The race-by-race timings have not been released yet.
Who qualifies for what
Several categories have their own entry standard:
- Masters Open: paddlers turning 50 or older in 2026
- Senior Mixed: paddlers turning 40 or older in 2026
- Under-18: paddlers whose 13th to 18th birthday falls in 2026, with a minimum age of 12
- PA Adaptive Open: at least 10 people with a permanent disability, caregivers allowed on a one-to-one basis, and a team that has trained together for at least three months
The steersperson in every boat needs at least a Basic Helm certification, and the SDBA provides paddles and personal flotation devices.
The festival and the Neon Night Paddle
The festival runs from 13 to 15 November. The Fan Zone at OCBC Square and an inflatable human foosball court run from 4pm to 8pm on the Friday and 10am to 6pm over the weekend. A rowing challenge called the Paddle Power Station and a paddle decoration station run from 10am to 6pm on both race days. Food and drink stalls stay open until 10pm on Friday and Saturday and until 6pm on Sunday.
The Neon Night Paddle runs on Saturday 14 November from 6pm to 9pm and costs S$45. No dragon boating experience is needed. Paddlers must be 12 or older and fit into a personal flotation device. Registration stays open until 14 November or until slots fill, and the session needs at least 12 people to go ahead.
The fee is non-refundable unless that minimum is not met. Bad weather can shift the timing or cancel the session outright, with no postponement and no refund in either case.
Getting there
The Water Sports Centre is a four-minute, 240m walk from Stadium MRT on the Circle Line (CC6). Tanjong Rhu station on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TE23) is an eight-minute, 500m walk from Exit 2.
