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A Day &
Night to Remember
Our 2012 Raft Race was held in IYCA / Port Vauban on Saturday 21st
April. Over 1000 Raft Race Fans turned out to watch 22 Rafts battle there
way across the Port. Weather was bright sunshine with a cross wind of some
20 knots - making Raft Racing even more entertaining to the spectators.
The course was modified at the last minute, and the Bowline Stop
eliminated to avoid the Rafts having to cross the mouth of the Port
with the strong tailwind. News of this change of plan failed to
reach the Marshals at the Drinks Stop, who continued to direct some
of the Rafts towards the Bowline Stop - leading to much confusion.
Smart Raft Masters ignored the directions, and made fast time
directly back to the Start/Finish line. Official Protests were later
considered, and dismissed.
Click the clapperboard to
see the highlights
5 minute movie, courtesy
of AzurTV.com
....and it works on iPhone
Overall winner was "BANANA RAFT", with "TEAM BIG FISH" a very close
second, and "SPANDEX SUPER HEROS" skippered by Raft Race veteran and Raft
Race Association President Gary Morton a very respectable third place.
The coveted award for the Biggest Cheat was won by "KNIGHT RIDER
MEETS THE QUEEN" whose Raft (it was discovered on final
scrutinising) was powered by two electric motors !
  Against
strong competition, "THE QUAYS" Raft - which disintegrated shortly
after the start (see pic on left) - was an obvious winner of the Chris Allix Cup for Total
Incompetence in Rafting. As their team missed the Evening Party &
Prize Giving, we held a special ceremony at The Quays Irish Pub to
present the prestigious award to them. Mark O'Connell snapped our picture
which shows Jacky Baker
from Dominion Consultants (who sponsored the award) with The Quays
Raft Team and the Trophy which is now proudly displayed behind the
Bar.
See
full list of the Trophy Winners online NOW. .
Official Judges for the day were David Skellon, Norma Trease, Andy
Davies, Peter Evans, Alex Braden, Phillipe Cotel, Joey Meen, Chris
Allix (who as Judge Afloat in his Kayak made a number of successful
rescues and gave tows to some of the Rafts), Zelda Lunt, Charlie
Binyon, Russell Lunt, and Ian Giel from LNC Engineering who
disappeared into the crowd early in the proceedings and missed the
crucial Judges Meeting at which the Trophy Winners were decided -
including the choice of "THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN" Raft as winner
of LNC's own Award for the Best Engineered Raft. We are sure that
Ian would have approved. |
100 years ago -
on 31st March 1912 - the construction of the
Olympic-class passenger steamship RMS "TITANIC" was completed at
Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast for her owners
White Star Line. 2 weeks later the ship was tragically lost overnight
14/15th April, and the survivors reached New York aboard "Carpathia"
on 18th April. To commemorate this event our 2012 evening 'bash'
was a 
