A few local dragons in Beaufort are looking for a new home. Can you help?

Sailboats, fishing trawlers and cruisers typically dot Beaufort’s local waters on a warm summer day.

But once a year everyone makes way for the dragons.

And these fierce creatures are looking for a new home.

The skinny, 42-foot-long Beaufort dragon boats are descendants of boats that date back some 2,000 years to China’s southern Guangdong Province where villages would compete for paddling supremacy.

Now, some 7,500 miles away from south China, local and regional crew members, many of them close friends, squeeze into the 4-foot-wide vessels with paddles in hand. They are fierce competitors in an annual local race, churning the water furiously and rhythmically to the pounding of a drum.

The regal crafts slice through the Lowcountry’s Beaufort River like daggers. “It’s really kind of a thing of beauty watching a well-trained team paddle,” says Greg Rawls of Beaufort, who marvels at the how the synchronized paddling smoothly moves the boats over the water.

DragonBoat Beaufort, a not-for-profit organization, runs the quirky annual race to raise money for cancer outreach. Some of the participants in the club and in the race are cancer survivors.

This past Saturday’s spectacle at Waterfront Park — the 10th — was another success, drawing 3,000 people and raising some $70,000 to help cancer patients who live, work or receive treatment in Beaufort County.

But the big race on the Beaufort River — and the money it generates — could dry up without some help.

For the past year, DragonBoat Beaufort has had no marina or dock where the funky boats can be tied up.

“That’s really getting to be a problem,” says Rawls, a spokesman for the group.

The organization, which owns two dragon boats used by multiple teams on race day and throughout the year for training, had docked at the Port Royal Landing and Marina in Port Royal. But it lost that spot when Safe Harbor Marinas bought the local marina. The club then moved the boats to the Maritime Center in Okatie, but that arrangement also came to an end.

Now the boats are sitting on trailers in Beaufort and Lady’s Island, which has reduced the club’s training opportunities from three times to once a week.

If Beaufort DragonBoat doesn’t have a paddling program, it will risk losing membership, Rawls says. And without the needed membership, it will struggle to put on the race that serves as the group’s main fundraiser for cancer outreach, Rawls said.

Over the past 10 years, DragonBoat Beaufort has awarded $250,000 in grants. In 2022, the group helped 130 cancer patients and awarded grants for $57,000 for everything from gas cards to help with paying mortgages and living costs.

“We’re looking at a domino effect that doesn’t have a good outcome,” Rawls said.

Beaufort DragonBoat is hoping a private dock or marina will be willing to host the boats and step forward to help the cause. Storage is needed not only for the dragon boats but also a pontoon craft used in training. If a home can be arranged for the boats, practices for about 20 people would continue two to three times a week.

By some accounts, dragon boat racing has developed into the fastest growing water sport in the world.

Thousands of paddlers descended on Hong Kong on Saturday — the same day as the Beaufort race — to take part in the International Dragon Boat competition, held for the first time in more than 4 years after they were halted due to anti-government protests and COVID-19.

The long and narrow boats are colorful, with Chinese dragon heads and tails decorating the bow and stern. They are powered by teams of 10 to 50 paddlers. A large drum is situated in the front and pounded by a drummer known as the heartbeat of the boat. The drummer sets the pace for the crew by creating the rhythmic cadence. A crew member in the stern handles the steering.

The sport’s beginnings in Beaufort were inspired by the documentary film “Awaken the Dragon,” shown at the Beaufort International Film Festival in February 2012. It told the story of a dragon boat team from Charleston made up of cancer survivors.

Several local residents who saw the documentary were inspired launch a team in Beaufort.

“We would meet Saturdays in Waterfront Park with folding chairs and brooms and learn to paddle, the form and how to get in sync,” Rawls recalled. “You are pretty close in there. If everyone is not paddling in sync, you are going to have a real mess.”

The local club’s first dragonboat, called “Braveheart,” was christened in 2012. Its second, which came in 2015, was called “Dragonfly.”

The Beaufort race came along in 2013. This year, 28 teams with names such as “Sea Witches,” “Low Country Warriors,” “Mammoglams” and “Shark Attack,” competed, traveling from places like Florida, Kentucky, Charleston, Sun City, Bluffton, Hilton Head and Pawleys Island.

Part of the reason many dragon boat team members are cancer survivors is because of Canadian research conducted in the 1990s. It found finding that dragon boat paddling provided excellent upper body strengthening for women with breast cancer who had undergone mastectomies, Rawls said. The research was counter to prevailing medical wisdom at the time.

“You find cancer survivor dragon boat teams just all over the place,” he said.

But DragonBoat Beaufort welcomes all. Working in such close quarters, and as a team, team members become like family. In its simplest form, the experience on the boat provides a connection to the Lowcountry’s water culture.

“You are really very close to nature,” Rawls says. “You’re watching the dolphins, you’re watching the rays go by.”

For more information

Contact Doreen Pierce at doreen1752@gmail.com or 585-413-8525 if you can help with dock space or want more information about getting involved with dragon boat racing.