2021 Onepoto Raft Race

They say a Captain should go down with his ship.  We'll I am glad then that the inlet is as shallow as it is and that our scouts can build rafts that last the distance, some of them impressively so.  This years raft race was won in 35 minutes.  We have never recorded finishing times before but it was certainly an impressive display of speed and coordination.  

Good support from lots of troops this year made for an exciting race, both in the building and the sailing of the rafts.  Troops who built rafts include:

• Raumati South Scouts & Venturers
• Ngati Toa Scouts & Venturers
• Paekakiriki Scouts
• Whitby Scouts
• Waikanae Scouts
• Otaki Scouts and
• St Mary's Scouts who came out from Levin

(If I have left anyone out, please let me know)

Briefing was at 9am, and following last years dismal number of bribes, officials didn't bother reminding people they could be bought!  Building began fairly promptly and rafts very quickly began to take shape, although some shapes were definitely more interesting than others.

At 10am most of the rafts were already on the beach and reasy to start.  Lance and I waved them off and the race began.

The race proceeded with less than usual coming apart of rafts and drifting barrels, but it wouldn't be a raft race without some at least.  All crews this year finished the course and came home on something that resembled the raft they left on.

Below is a narrative written by one of the scouts of their own epic journey:

"Once the officials had finished explaining how the race was going to work, different groups started to meld together and almost immediately started gathering materials for their rafts. My group was comprised of me, Amelia, Kalina, Trinaya, Emma, Zoe, Rose, Calvin, and Hamish. After we had established that we were a group, and that we could use eleven flotation devices altogether, we quickly split off to gather resources so we wouldn’t miss out on any of the more popular resources like ropes and inner tubes.

We soon stood in front of our collection; three light blue barrels, two inner tubes, two small piles of rope, and two bottles. We spent about ten minutes brainstorming until Zoe came up with a design that we all agreed on, so we set to work building it. There were definitely a lot of little things during the construction that made it fun, adding our inner tube, realising that someone had stolen our second inner tube, making our rafts sail (A covid19 scanner, remember to scan!), naming our raft after said  sail (covid21 was her name),and all all sorts of other things.

She collapsed the minute she touched the water. (See the last picture above) But that was fine, this is fine, everything is fine. Against all odds we persevered! Morale was high for most of the journey and we all had a great time, (except for those who felt a walk was the better alternative). Our odd choice of sea shanties definitely contributed a lot to the fun atmosphere on the raft, if you must know we sang ‘let it go’ and ‘barbie girl’, but definitely sang the chorus to living on a prayer a lot more than either since none of us knew the verses. In the final count we lost our three barrels and a paddle. They were all picked up by the patrol boats though, so we did have everything at the end of the race. Overall 10/10 experience would recommend."  (by Rosie)

Finishing was a long process, taking between 35 minutes for the quickest to 1 hour 40 for the last raft to come home.

This years race was won in both categories (Yes we have two trophies now) by Raumati South Scouts & Venturers.

Raumati Scouts - 2021 Raft Race winners

Raumati Venturers - 2021 Raft Race winners - 
holding on to the trophy for another year

Well done to all who participated and enjoyed themselves to the max.  Thats what these events are for.  Thanks to all the leaders and parents for supporting their scouts and to the safety boat crews who ferried endless numbers of raft pieces that liberated themselves from their parent rafts!

Now we are all looking forward to next years event!