By RYAN MURRAY

The Daily Inter Lake

Maybe the organizers and participants of 2013’s Montana Dragon Boat Festival got too lucky yesterday with beautiful weather.

Sunday wasn’t so kind, as torrents of rain and booming thunder caused officials to first postpone and then cancel the last heats of round three.

For the women and recreational racers, times from Saturday’s two heats were averaged to determine a winner. The competitive boats got to race in the morning before weather put a damper on the event, so those boaters took the average of three heats.

For Penny Behling, the race director and owner of Dynamic Dragon Boat Racing, it was anticlimactic.

“We had great weather for much of the day,” she said. “You can control a lot of things, but you can’t control the weather.”

Races started at 9 a.m., and the weather was fine up until 11:20 a.m., when several heats already on the lake were called back to shore. Fifteen heats in total were able to race in round three, with just five canceled. 

The fourth and final heats would have determined champions. Those, too, were called off.

Behling, a resident of Knoxville, Tenn., has been running events for eight-and-a half-years. She said despite her disappointment, the festival went wonderfully.

“Yesterday was such a fun day,” Behling said. “Everybody had such a great time. This is the largest festival I have done so far.”

With 93 teams competing in three divisions, it was important to run the event like clockwork. The weather had other plans.

“The people in Montana, whether from in the area or out of the country, have been incredibly supportive,” Behling said, giving a nod to the festival’s international collection of boats. “I’ll be here as long as they’ll have me.”

Behling also ran 2012’s dragon boat festival, the Flathead Valley’s inaugural event.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.