Met Police Team Takes it to the Wire in True 'Five Oh' Style at Charity Raft Race
Posted on Wednesday 26th August 2009 in News
What would you do if offered four large plastic barrels, eight fat bamboo poles and 10 metres of poly rope? Well, the right answer is build a raft and get yourself sponsored and that’s exactly what the sixteen teams who entered the Safer London Foundation (SLF) Raft Race did before putting their craft to the test on, or more accurately in, the murky waters of Wimbledon Park Lake.
The Volunteer Police Cadets put up five teams, three from Ealing, one from Westminster and one on home turf, or perhaps surf, from Merton, the Met’s Safer Neighbourhoods Unit provided another, so did the fire arms unit CO19 and the Met’s Property Services, with another home team from Merton’s Trinity Ward Safer Neighbourhoods Team.
The business world was represented by two teams from Interserve Facilities Management (who deserve a very special thank you for the having sourced the bamboo and rope and transporting the barrels), two from law firm Clifford Chance and another from UBS Investment Bank.
The charity sector was represented by a valiant team from Foundation 4 Life, and the last of the sixteen was a crew press ganged by SLF’s very own fundraiser Venetia Barton.
The teams were joined by young people from the AHOY Centre and Foundation 4 Life who were there to help build and crew the rafts. Experienced raft builders from the Wimbledon Park Watersports Centre were also on hand to show the teams how it should be done and provide safety boat cover for the race.
The race consisted of two heats with the first, second and third from each heat going through to the final. Both heats were hotly contested as rafts jostled for position on the starting line before paddling madly off and around the two big inflatable yellow buoys that marked the course.
Both in their heat and in the final, the CO19 team, Blue Fury, took an early and decisive lead in their unusual triangular designed raft, a type of outrigger (as seen in the title sequence of 70's American cop show Hawii Five Oh and now an urban slang term for police). Other teams and supporters sniggered about this odd design during the build but Blue Fury had the last laugh, winning both their heat and the final by a convincing margin. Expect a flotilla of three-sided imitators at the next SLF raft race in the spring.
SLF Deputy Chair of Trustees, Dinah Cox, presented medals to the winners, runners up and the builders of the best dressed raft. This event is helping SLF raise much needed funds from the sponsor money which is still coming in and as yet untotalled.
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