'We're desperate': Loughborough dragon boat club asks public to help them find 'special' £12k boat
Watch the Soaring Dragons' beloved racing boat in action - they're urging the public to look out for it after floodwaters swept it away
A dragon boat team is still searching for one of its racing boats which went missing after Storm Henk tore across the Midlands.
Soaring Dragons, a Loughborough-based team who train on the River Soar, had five boats swept away, with one still missing.
Paul Freemantle, the Head Coach and one of the team's founders, said: "On Wednesday 3 January, the river level of the River Soar reached a new highest level and it actually took two of our racing boats off the stands that they were on, snapped the ropes that were tying it to [the stand], and took them down the river.
"In total we lost five boats - we've managed to recover four of them, but our main racing boat is still missing, and that's the one we're desperately trying to get back."
The missing boat, nicknamed 'The Major', is worth £12,000, and took a year to import from China.
Paul said: "We've had it about three years now - they're not easy to come by, and it will devastate our racing season this year if we're not able to get hold of that boat.
"It's specifically designed for dragon boat racing, and we can't use anything else in place of it."
What is dragon boat racing?
The sport, which dates back more than 2000 years and began in southern China, sees teams of up to 20 people sitting in pairs and paddling in races of around 250m.
The boats have a helmsperson steering them from the stern, and a drummer beating time to keep the paddlers together, sat in the bow.
Dragon boats are becoming increasingly popular not only as a sport, but also as a team-building activity thanks to the teamwork required to succeed.
The team's training has been suspended, partially due to the River Soar's levels remaining high after the downpour, but Paul says the team will "struggle" without their main racing boat.
He notes that the team does have some training boats, but "they're not designed for racing, they're too old to go racing in properly".
"So yeah, it's going to have a massive effect," he said.
The Soaring Dragons currently hold two titles - they're the Mixed League and Ladies champions.
"In terms of the racing this year, it's going to be devastating," Paul said, adding: "To not have our own equipment it is going to be devastating for the club this year.
"Each dragon boat is very very special, and each one is specific and has their own character.
"There's a whole sort of celebration and ceremony when you get your dragon boat you have to awaken the dragon's spirit. So each [boat] is almost treated like a person, or like an actual entity.
"They have their own characters - to borrow somebody else's boat, it wouldn't really be the same. This is our boat, it's the one we train in, it's the one we race in, so it's special to us, and this is why we're desperate to get this one back."
Head Coach Paul Freemantle explain the importance and spiritual significance of the dragon boats
As the search for 'The Major' continues, Paul and the club are urging people to keep an eye out for the boat, which could be trapped anywhere along the Soar.
"The boats are naturally buoyant, they have a double-skinned hull so there's an air void in them, so they do tend to come back up [if they sink]", he said.
"There's a lot of trees overhanging the River Soar, so now we're hoping it's been caught under a tree, and as the river levels drop we'll be able to find it, or that it's been washed into a field we haven't been able to access yet.
"We've had people going all the way from Hathern [in Loughborough] where we're based all the way down to Colwick [in Nottingham], checking the river all the way along, we just haven't been lucky enough to find it yet."
The last confirmed sighting of their beloved boat when it was spotted upside down at Kegworth Bridge.
Paul offered a description of the missing boat for any eagle-eyed boaters or dog walkers.
"If anyone is looking, the boat is 40 feet long and about four-and-a-half feet wide at its widest point. It's completely black with red scales down both sides. It's very unique - you're not going to miss it if you come across it!"
He added that anyone who spots the boat shouldn't take risks, and says they should get in touch with the club who will send out their own motorised boats to retrieve it.
But looking to the future, Paul is worried about the financial impact of this loss.
"The boat took us five years to raise the money for," he said. "If the insurance doesn't cover it, we will have to start campaigning again to raise the money [to replace it]."
But the 'river community', as Paul describes it, has stepped up to support the Dragons.
"We'd like to thank everybody who's been really supportive so far, other dragon boat clubs who've offered us extra training at their grounds, throughout the country we've had offers of extra boats," Paul says.
He continued: "The whole river community has been looking out for it; anglers, kayakers, rowers. A Derby rafting team went out and searched the River Soar for us. Everybody who knows the sport and knows the rivers and what we do, knows how important this is for us."
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