Raft racers battle winds, objects and offensive matter
A raft with a crafty missile-cover
There's nothing quite like a good dose of Schadenfreude, the amusement in observing other people's misfortunes, to get a crowd going.
At the annual Collingwood Raft Race last Saturday the crowd roared as water and flour bombs, rotten eggs, stinking sludge and-in the ultimate gesture of malice-a bucket of cow poo rained down from the Aorere Bridge onto the rafting teams while they struggled to keep afloat in extremely windy conditions.
"This is bloody awful, it's almost bullying," said a holidaymaker from Wellington. "You start to wonder what underlies such behaviour and how quickly this could lead to an escalation of violence."
Not surprisingly, after occasional retaliating, fistfuls of mud sailed up from down below, revenge came at last as a gigantic cardboard fire engine directed a solid blast from a water hose at the onlookers.
The race is definitely not for sissies. Most rafters came well prepared with helmets, wetsuits, plastic sheets or a car body for shelter. Despite these battle conditions, or maybe because of it, 14 senior and 6 junior entries were attracted this year.
Collingwood Boat Club president, Warren Iggo, was pleased with the high level of raft construction and the record spectator numbers. Mr Iggo pointed out that the bombardment of the rafters from the bridge was traditional, and although people were asked not to use "offensive matter", the harmless water and flour bombs had always been exchanged for more "odorous stuff."
"It's not very pleasant but we cannot stamp it out," he said.
The history of the race goes back 30 years. The first, held in 1979, was won by the NZ Fire Service. After a gap of a few years, 1982-86, Mr Iggo came on board in 1988 as the event organiser. In the last 20 years he has seen many junior rafters progress to senior level, and by then they are well trained in boating safety as well as in creative endeavour.
"These days it's mainly Collingwood people who enter and the juniors are often holidaymakers. We used to have a lot of people from Riwaka-but they don't come anymore-and a few from Takaka," he said. "The boat club endeavours to run the event with as few rules as possible to allow ‘creative seamanship', but this year the appearance of rowlocks gave an unfair advantage over paddles. The car-raft had an outboard motor and made it up the boat ramp at the other end with the wheels still turning. But when we have motors, these rafts have to be disqualified. The club will have to set firmer rules to ensure we have rafts, and not skiffs, competing.
"Our club's thanks go to Tinky's Tavern for providing the vast array of prizes and to all our "safety boat" operators. A fun day was had by all."
Ina Holst
Results: Seniors (Red): 1st No 6 "Old Salty" Jamie Soper (Race Shield). 2nd No 12 "Brights" Brent Bright. 3rd No 1 "Fire Brigade" Graeme Miller. 4th No 5 "Scott's Junk" Chris Scott. Juniors (Green): 1st No 1 "Mean Machine" Quinny Strange. 2nd No 4 "Smurfy's Law" Phoebe Zeller. 3rd No 5 "HSMS" Sarah. Most Unusual: No 13 Sen "Thirst Fighters" (Yellow Appliance). Most Effort: No 3 Jnr "Cat Fosker" Caitlin McLellan. Most Aggressive: No 2 Sen "Flower Power" Jayden. Most Teamwork: No 9 Sen "Para Handy" Jules. Most Unlikely: No 10 Sen "Tinky's Team" Pete (Prize: A hot water bottle) .
