They are rivals in the boardrooms, on the stockmarket and at the courthouse – but it's out on the water that they really settle the score.
Big names in banking and law will compete on Sunday in the corporate arm of the annual dragon boat race, part of the Chinese New Year festival. About 1000 people are expected to vie for bragging rights – and a trophy – across more than 50 corporate, charity and community teams.
Sylvia Wong, head coach at Blackwattle Bay Dragon Boat Club and an IT co-ordinator at French bank BNP Paribas, will be at Darling Harbour bright and early on Sunday to rally her team to take on nemeses Westpac and HSBC. The competition is mostly friendly, she says, save for some playful sledging.
"We always do a little bit …enough to put them off," Ms Wong says.
Each 12-metre dragon boat takes 20 paddlers, a drummer up the front and a "sweep" at the back to steer and encourage the team. Boats race a distance of 200m from Pyrmont Bridge to the IMAX end of Darling Harbour, starting with fast, powerful strokes to gather speed before moving to longer, deeper strokes to maintain momentum. "It's just a simple movement; the hardest part is getting everyone in sync," says Ms Wong, BNP's sweep.
It costs $800 to register and about $300 for a mandatory training session, plus an optional marquee on the big day. The more serious contenders train four or five times and spend about $3000 in total,a relatively inexpensive way for large companies to build camaraderie among staff. The activity is also attractive to women, who outnumber men four to one on the BNP Paribas team.
"We struggle normally for sports to get females. This is the most popular event, that's for sure," says Annabelle Larue, who runs BNP's social program.
Outside the corporate world, dragon boat racing commands a large following in NSW. There are 63 clubs throughout the state, from Orange to Grafton to Jindabyne. The sport accepts entrants as young as 12 and has a handful of competitors in their 80s. On Saturday, 1500 people from 46 clubs and schools will compete in the Chinese New Year race, the last major event before the state championships in April.
The dragon boat race is thought to have originated more than 2000 years ago in the "rice bowl" of southern central China. In Chinese tradition, dragons ruled the earth's waterways, and the race was said to encourage rainfall for the season ahead. Later the races honoured the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who took his life in the Miluo river in protest against political corruption. Some scholars also trace the ritual back to early naval exercises in the Yangtze valley.
The boats used this weekend are mostly imported from Germany, as are the intricate dragon heads that will adorn their bows. And on Saturday morning, in another nod to Chinese mythology, festival guests will dot the dragons' eyes to bless the beasts and wake them from their slumber.
At Westpac, which has won the main corporate event three years in a row, captain James Zhao is "confident" of another victory. With arch rival Mars not entering, he's most concerned about Commonwealth Bank, whose crew "The Can Team" he deems this year's dark horse.
"It'll be nice if the 'Can' team can't beat us," he quips.
