Bay of Plenty Dragon Boat Club’s new paddling gear stolen

BOP Flyers crew member Dave Horgan, coach Steph Mott (front) and manager Angie Lind at the Sulphur Point Dragon Boat Club. Photo / Debbie Griffiths

Custom-made gear worth thousands of dollars has been stolen from a boating club preparing for a world championship event.

Bay of Plenty Dragon Boat Club president Brooke Hargreaves said a Hornet paddling bag with 20 new team racing paddles and paddling gear; personal items; waka gear and waka paddles and lifejackets; and a set of Team Dragon boat carbon-fibre paddles were stolen. The later were “useless” to anybody other than dragon boaters, Hargreaves said.

“You can’t adapt them to any other sport. It’s labelled with a unique design and our team name, absolutely useless to anyone outside of DB paddling. They’re custom made and have the custom branding – the emblem of the team – on them.”

The paddles of the Bay of Plenty Dragon Flyers team held a lot of mana and were unique to the team, she said. The team had qualified to attend the Club Crew World Championship in Italy in September.

The Dragon Boat Club and the Dragon Flyers are asking for information from anyone who might come across any of the items for sale on social media.

Two of the stolen paddles.

“They would’ve cost at least $6000 or $7000 just for a set of paddles,” Hargreaves said.

“We’re right in the middle of training. We just finished nationals a month ago. We’ve got the largest contingent going to Italy and Dragon Flyers is a portion of that.”

A team member who has made it into the New Zealand team, the NZ Black Dragons, also had gear stolen.

“In the gear that was stolen, there was a specific paddle for the Black Dragons. So for her to get that opportunity to be a Black Dragon and then have gear stolen, it sucks.”

The individual victims had given reports to police.

“We’re not-for-profit and we’re individual teams that fundraise really hard and the Dragon Flyer is one of many teams that are trying to get this money to go to Italy,” Hargreaves said.

“We’re such a close-knit community in New Zealand; we only have a few thousand paddlers nationwide.”

- If you have any information on the stolen items please contact the Bay of Plenty Dragon Boat Club via Facebook: www.facebook.com/bopdragonboating.

- SunLive