Flotilla raft contest

For the second summer in a row, teams of Boys Ranch youth went head-to-head in the “Flotilla” raft building contest on June 13. The boys in each home unit worked together to plan and build a raft that was able to make the trip across Slator Pond. All teams were successful in building an efficient raft to get all the housemates across the pond.

Ian Bracken, Boys Ranch recreation coordinator, brought this idea to the boys last year as a team building exercise for the home units.

“I hope that they learn some creativity, teamwork, competitive spirit and ingenuity from this activity,” Bracken said. “But most of all I want them to have a fun and imaginative summer.”

The boys were given 3 hours to build their raft and one hour to successfully cross the pond with all of their housemates. They could make one trip with all on board or several trips with a few at a time. They were given a small basket of supplies including duct tape, rope and a tarp. All other supplies had to be collected and scavenged by the boys from the community or ranch property.

Edwards East made it across the pond with the fastest time of 3 minutes and 49 seconds, improving the winning time last year by 24 seconds. They were followed by Slator North with a time of 4 minutes and 8 seconds. Coming in third was Edwards West at 5:57. Edwards West knocked off an amazing 41 minutes from their time in 2013 showing great improvement this year. Turner finished out the times with 6:22.

“The competition this year went really well,” Bracken said. “The rafts this year were quite impressive compared to last year’s rafts. The Edwards East boys will be able to hang the Flotilla trophy on their unit wall for the next 365 days and proudly claim they were the fastest across the pond!”