'Man Overboard!' A well timed heave from the swell tumbles the port forrard paddler from his bathtub cockpit. He surfaces, laughing, under the blunt bow of his home built craft.
The union of fertile nautical imaginations with shoreline flotsam and DIY cast offs has spawned many an answer to the question of how to win the New Year's Day raft race.
January 1 2016 greets contestants with a glowering sky, a powerful flood tide, 30 - 40 knots of SE wind and a breaking swell. The lifeboat tows contestants up to the start line - and then stands by.
The crack of the starting gun is lost amid the shriek of the gusts. The start is ragged, with contestants absorbed in flour bombing one another. Wind and tide carry the fleet down the Quay. Most paddle, some get out to push!
The ramshackle armada straggles past crowds of well wishers, bellowing support, and on towards the bridge - glancing off moored shipping as they go.
For many craft the press of weather is too much. Raft designs show a tendency to break up. Undeterred the ship wrecked mariners complete their race aboard salvaged jetsam.
A low freeboard bathtub design is overwhelmed by a rogue wave. The swamped vessel founders in the exposed eastern approaches to the Quay.
Her crew are plucked from the heaving waters by the watchful RNLI.
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Location:West Quay Road,Poole,United Kingdom
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