Kenmore to Aberfeldy Raft Race – Griffin Forest raft and crew
Photographs are courtesy of John Macdonald, who was a Tilhill forester at the time of the establishment of Griffin Forest.
John comments, "These photographs show the Griffin Grafters Mark 1 raft and crew. The Raft Race crew was Ali Menarry and his sister Jenny, John MacBeth, Balnagaurd and retired FCS Dumfries, Ian Matheson, the late Colin Macpherson (on the starboard bow) and me.
In later years we went up to crews of 8 and 10. The race was held on the last weekend in June 1981 from memory. . There were 147 entries in our first Kenmore-Aberfeldy raft race! The raft was a last minute affair with cans for buoyancy most of which filled up with water. One of the seats had been knocked off before we started and the rest went flying when we hit the rocks at Chinese bridge! We did finish but it was seriously hard graft. Subsequent years we went for Styrofoam buoyancy but never did get near the pros. in rankings, but all good fun even if the MBPT didn’t sponsor us!"
The PDF shows the Griffin Forest raft receiving its decals courtesy of Ali Menarry.
Groups: Groups of people