Floating
farmyard wins the Raft Race! 10th August, 2006 One of the highlights of Maidstone's annual river festival is its 25-year old raft race. Companies, charities and companions from around the county build rafts in a race against a mile-long stretch of the fast-flowing River Medway. As well as contending with wild river currents and windy conditions, rafters also have to face a barrage of flour, eggs and water bombs being thrown at them by the public and surrounding boaters!
Rafters are judged on the speed of their raft, and its appearance or fancy dress. The competition was tough with pirate galleons, British Gas vans and army cadet camps featuring this year. But the winner was a new entry... a floating farmyard built by North Downs Young Farmers Club!
We spent three days-solid building the raft, using whatever materials we could find at Bridge Boat Service in East Farleigh. In the end, our raft was made of two pontoons bolted together and fenced off, with a cow made from oil drums, a barn from spare bits of plywood, and our flag from the county show attached! A scarecrow and tools were kindly lent to us for the duration of the race by a friend of the club.
The raft was so big that it took eight members to get it to move! Even with eight of us on the raft, though, everytime the win blew we were pushed back ten meters - normally right into the firing aim of a watercannon or flour-firing catapult!
It took just over 45 minutes to paddle the 1-mile stretch of river from Maidstone's Whatman Park to the Park and Sail station. During that time, rafters were soaked several times from head to toe, and had to put up with being attacked by fellow rafters as well as the public!
All the hard work, wet clothes, lost buckets (the pirates took them!) and blisters from rowing paid off - North Downs YFC were crowned the best looking raft by the Mayor of Maidstone and Miss River Festival!
It was great fun building a floating farmyard and racing it at the Maidstone River Festival. We can't wait till next year's event, and coming up with an even better raft! As for Daisy the cow... expect her to make a comeback at next year's County Show!
See photos of us making the raft here
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