Funky Flotilla Floats Down The Charles River

The dirty water of the Charles was further fouled yesterday by the occasional addition of polluted Harvard-Radcliffe students during the Ivy and World championship raft race. The raft race, elegantly sponsored by Adams House, was an ostentatious show of nautical plummage which enthralled large crowds around the river area.

The rafts ranged from the chauvinistic to the crazy in an astounding display of student ingenuity. The most interesting was the Kirkland House Spider.

It was constructed with styrofoam pontoons on the ends of six arched wooden legs. At the apex, five feet above water, was a platform for the crew to row from. Launching difficulties caused a severe fracture of one leg, which was quickly repaired.

To board the lofty platform, the crew used a 16-foot ladder from the shore. The second man to board caused the Spider to ignominiously collapse in front of the very large crowd. A reorganized version, with a much lower profile, successfully finished the Anderson to Weeks course.

The first craft to cross the finish line was a sleek double kayak from Dunster House. Its speed, accomplished by a mundane design, precluded the entry from winning any appearance awards.

The remaining flotsom was awarded many different prizes for behavior and looks. The Most Ostentatious award went to Eliot House's The Henry Elkins, designed as an oar-powered Mississippi steam boat. The Most Obscene and Most Polluted Crew awards went to the boat from Adams with a large banana on the sail and a bellicose crew that threw the peels at the other boats.

The Most Individual award went to a wet suited fellow paddling a wide surfboard. Two girls with an umbrella sail on a raft of plastic bottles won the Most Ambitious With Least Potential award.