SIM Dragons was formed in July 2005 by then club president Cao Yue Ming, a student from SIM-RMIT. Their very first exposure race was during the 23rd Singapore River Regatta in November, which they represented SAFRA Dragons when SIM Dragons was still a non-affiliate of Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA).
Such as the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race held annually in the United Kingdom, the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival (SDBF) is the most prestigious race in the local dragon boat calendar. Since its inception in 1999, the Prime Minister (PM) Cup Challenge had been a two-way contest between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS). As dragon boating caught on quickly amongst the schools, Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and Singapore Management University (SMU) were invited by SDBA on 13th March 2006 to compete for the PM Cup which has been arguably the most competitive event in the whole festival ever since.
SIM Dragons was officially affiliated with SDBA on 1st April 2006 and went on to compete at their first SDBF race in June 2006. It was during 2007 when SIM dragon boat team finally got their breakthrough as the men won their first ever Tertiary IVP silver medal during SDBF 2007 under then student-coach, Terence Ong.
Veteran and coach, Mr Ng Sin Teck, was officially appointed as their new coach for the team in January 2008. Recognising the potential for growth, the school further supported the team with a new Seagull dragon boat in March 2008. In a short space of time, Coach guided SIM Dragons to a Silver for Tertiary Men and a Bronze for Tertiary Mixed, PM Cup Bronze (Men) and PM Cup Bronze (Women). For a young upstart, it was a great success by any measure and a positive sign for greater things to come.
