The Speed River will play host to a number of strange vessels on June 8 as the Wellington Area Scouts host the 23rd Annual Speed River Raft Race.
The event is open to all members of Scouts Canada including Scouts, Venturer Scouts and Rover Scouts.
The race will start at 10am on June 8 in Riverside Park.
In preparation for this pioneering skills event, local Scouts are busy building rafts from wood spars and twine as part of the ‘traditional’ category as well as anything suitable to their imagination for the ‘open’ category.
Past designs have included traditional flat rafts as well as more inventive paddle-wheel rafts or an entire canoe-like structure made solely from cardboard.
Greg Howarth of the 1st Guelph Rover Crew explains how they gained inspiration for their open category raft from the television show MythBusters building a raft from duct tape and sticks.
“We are looking forward to seeing how the raft does in the races and how the duct tape will hold up,” says Howarth.
The public are invited to join the raft teams and cheer on all the builders, racers, and Scouts. For more information contact Dean Post at 519-994-2372 or deanpost@rogers.com.
