Rat Race Reaches River as Riff-Raff Race Rafts

Harvard's hard core raft-race fans were able to have their day in the sun Sunday. Shuttled and scuttled by a strong tail wind, the eight hardy entrants paddled, puffed, swam and spun their way down the Charles in this second annual Adams House classic.

Professionalism was the order of the day. The City of Dorchester (otherwise known as the Mickey Mouse Flagship) and the Canoe Cuy, two full size catamaran-type warships, left all the other contenders in the lurch. The Canoe Cuy was the winner, but two first place awards were made, owing to a dispute about class conflict. The City thought they were in a different class than the Canoe Cuy and didn't paddle as hard as they could, since they were easily beating everyone else.

Much sideline speculation centered around the new, paddle-powered waterbed rafts. These innovative crafts are just beginning to appear on the raft-race circuits, but, from all indications, it seems unlikely that they will ever catch on. Both the Water Bedlam (skippered by Tinker Lindsay, Tad Paul, and Lisa Noll of Adams) and the Delta Queen (manned by Henry Hardy and Terry Valenzuela of Adams House) ended up upside down. Apologists blamed the officials' launch for causing the spills, but cooler heads pointed to a basic instability of design. The crew of the Water Bedlam was somewhat compensated for their pains by walking off with the "Cholera Cup," awarded to the first contestant to fall in the Charles, and live. When asked his first reaction upon hitting the water, one of the Queen's crewmen replied," I shut my mouth,...fast."

Consolation prizes were given to other contestants, as well. Sarah Groves and Dixie Brown won the "I hope nobody recognizes me award" for the worst constructed craft. The most anybody could tell was that it had something to do with milk cartons. David Little and Bill Burke won the "PT 109 Award" for the best design for speed that lost anyway The "Carpenter Center Award" for the most creative craft went to Robert Livingston and his bag filled with balloons, and Mickey Mouse copped the "Cecil B. deMille Award", for the "biggest production".