Des Mabbott
Thirty years ago, in October 1993, Des Mabbott, the director of health and safety at the University of Hong Kong, had formed the Hong Kong Island Paddle Club (HKIPC), a dragon boat team, and was looking for a permanent place to train. Des’s team had evolved from a successful dragon boat team at the University Hong Kong that quickly expanded beyond HKU. “The results are now history and the two clubs have benefitted hugely from such small beginnings,” he wrote in 2012. In 1999, Victoria Recreation Club hosted the first Deep Water Bay dragon boat races, “to contribute another race to the dragon boat community and give people a chance to race earlier in the season, six weeks before the Stanley races,” he told the South China Morning Post in 2007, shortly before his departure from Hong Kong.