With Creativity and Duct Tape, Celebrating an American Holiday
By Elizabeth Carr
It took 273 two-liter bottles, 6 miles of duct tape, and six 2-by-4s to construct the raft.
A bumper sticker on the back with "redneck" on it glittered as Team Gitter Done carried its raft high down the Treasure Island beach to the Gulf of Mexico. The raft was bright blue with red and white stars and matching beer holders on each corner.
This was no ordinary raft. This was no ordinary raft race.
The fourth annual Wacky Raft Race was sponsored by the Gulf Beaches Rotary Club and was held on July Fourth. Three teams competed. Team Gitter Done with its raft, Bottle Rocket. Pristine Peaks, named for a water company. And Mark Hubbard's boat named for…well, Mark Hubbard.
This wacky race was one of the two events held that day by the club. The other event was an 8-mile ocean kayak race held early that morning.
Harry Black, 54, president-elect of the Rotary Club, remembers one of the board meetings four years ago when a member said he had heard of a wacky raft race done by another rotary club. The Gulf Beaches club decided to try it as a fund-raiser—and it stuck.
"One year we made them build it out of cardboard and had a time limit," Black said. "We like the wacky one better. That way they get a little more creative."
Last year Team Gitter Done and Mark Hubbard's boat shared the trophy, a large wood-carved Tiki god with faded paint soaked into the wood grain. They named it King Wacko.
The contest rules were simple: Each team had to be sponsored and, after paying a $50 entry fee, had to build a raft out of only buoyant materials (no metal allowed) and duct tape. Each boat needed to have four paddlers. Even the paddles had to be homemade. The $150 from the race would go to the Rotary Club.
Rotary's mission is to provide humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace in local communities and the world—on top of sponsoring wacky races, of course.
Team Gitter Done bought Jell-O shots from a bar across the street and gave them to their rivals in Hubbard's boat. It was part of their strategy: members of Gitter Done drank beer in preparation for the race but hoped Mark Hubbard's boat would get drunk first.
The teams carried their rafts to the water, set them down with paddles on top and waited for instructions. Team Gitter Done's boat sat between Mark Hubbard's boat and the first-time wacky racers Pristine Peaks.
On Team Gitter Done's raft were Clint Whaley, 24; Dave Wilson, 21; Thomas Abbott, 23; and his father Kevin Abbott—who claims he's 32, but, whose crows' feet would tell otherwise.
The men all go by other names though—they are Scooter, Doodle, Tater Salad and Bait. Bait, the younger Abbott, was chosen as captain of Team Gitter Done because "he's the little one," his father said.
Hubbard, a member of the Rotary Board of Directors, had his raft stocked with family members and friends. Two of his daughters paddled, along with his friends Gabe Garling, 30, and Jeff Conca, 44, both from St. Petersburg.
There was controversy last year over the use of PVC pipe by Mark Hubbard's boat, and the lack of the correct number of paddlers on Team Gitter Done's raft. The compromise was a trophy-share: six months to one team and six to the other.
On the Pristine Peaks raft were Chris Craig, Troy Parker, Kenny Parker and Jess Bennett, all from St. Petersburg.
Once all the boaters were in place the rules for the race were announced.
The teams would start at the American flag plunked in the middle of the beach. They would run to their rafts, climb in, shove off and paddle to the first buoy about 30 yards out. After a right turn around the second buoy they would paddle around another buoy 40 yards away, then paddle to shore, at which point one team member would run—paddle in hand—back to the flag. The first team done would win.
The boaters repositioned themselves trying to find the spot on the sand closest to the buoys. People on the beach moved out of the way.
"GO," yelled a referee, and the teams were on their way. Team Gitter Done's Bottle Rocket and Mark Hubbard's boat were the first in the water, followed closely by Pristine Peaks.
About 10 feet from the beach, Team Gitter Done took the lead.
"Left! Right!," team Gitter Done shouted as they paddled along—their oars like makeshift kayak paddles. Mark Hubbard's boat sank back, sitting low in the water. Pristine Peaks slowed to a crawl, the open-bottomed raft not visible from the shore, so it appeared the paddlers were sitting on the water.
Swimmers cheered for their favorite teams, the loudest coming from Team Gitter Done's entourage.
Team Gitter Done rounded the first buoy, a full boat-length ahead of Mark Hubbard's boat. Pristine Peaks floated two boat-lengths back. As Gitter Done breezed by the first buoy and approached the second, Pristine Peaks had yet to round the first marker.
Halfway back to the beach, Gitter Done's fans cheered, "Go, Gitter Done!"
The Pristine Peaks team members sat on top of the raft, built of gallon water jugs, and slowly approached the second buoy. Gitter Done pulled nearer to the beach, not even looking back to see where Mark Hubbard's boat was.
They knew they had sunk the competition.
Gitter Done's Clint Whaley stood up on the back of the raft, legs apart for balance, paddle raised high above his straw hat, which had miniature American flags stuck in the brim.
"Yeah!" he screamed.
As the raft pulled on to the beach, Bait took off running for the flag in the middle of the beach—a paddle still in his hands.
When he touched the flag the crowd cheered. There would be no trophy-sharing this year.
Team Gitter Done turned and watched Mark Hubbard's boat come to shore. They clapped and yelled as the raft pulled in, celebrating the fact that their raft had not sunk this year. Then all eyes turned to Pristine Peaks.
On the beach people encouraged the tired team.
Team Gitter Done went one step further to cheer the tired paddlers on. All four members jumped into the water and swam out to meet the slow boat. Pristine Peaks didn't want help though, and started splashing Gitter Done with their water-jug paddles.
When the teams returned to the registration tent for the awards ceremony, King Wacko the Tiki trophy was waiting for them. Gitter Done's Kevin Abbott kissed the trophy.
"Back home to Papa," he said.
With gold medals draped around their necks and King Wacko held high, Team Gitter Done discussed trying to find paint to change the I on their banner to an O.
Team Gitter Done gotter done.
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