I was a safety boat on the original race. I was appalled at the time at the safety arrangements and ending up towing two of the rescue boats, afterwards I took on board (from memory) 14 people off a dragon type boat that sunk under Tower Bridge and that night towed 15 of the rowboats boats to Richmond as no arrangements had been made to get them back.
I threw a wobbly afterwards and never helped again.
Dragon boats: Another one went over this year. Can't see the attraction of them, must surely generate some work for the osteopaths. Here's my lot passing Richmond Bridge, yours truly on stroke. Oars not looking too tidy but we got better. Last of 3 Montagu Whalers, but not by much. Took 4h 06m, a long time due to it being neaps so not a lot of help from the tide. Had about 6 offers for the motor along the way.
We saw one sink at Westminster Bridge, it was the Docklands Watersports Centres Boat. Of all the boats we saw go past it was the least sutiable for use on the tideway (no freeboard at all) you think they would have known better /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Good job there were plenty of rescue boats about, all looked good fun though... if like swimming in sewage