“Anything That Floats” was again the event not to be missed on the Sedgefield Slow Festival programme.

The Roos Family posing as the Flintstones – the winning float in the Anything that Floats event – photo by Des Scholtz

Eleven teams entered this year’s competition, every team thinking that their design was the one that would win the day. The ages of this year’s participants ranged from as young as 4 years to rather mature, but they all had one thing in common: they were ready to have a lot of fun!

At race time, the banks of the Swartvlei Estuary were lined with hundreds of excited spectators.

The Cape Town based team “The Fairy Princess Pirates” brought some fantasy to the event with wings, tutus, glitter and disco balls and a design that was mostly powered by a strong dad in flippers. The Beach Bubbles built their raft with 2L soft drink bottles. Then there were the tried and trusted combination of inflated tubes and a wooden platform used by the two development teams, the “Surf Boys” and the “Afrosharks”.

Our local sheriff and his helpers took the day off to join in the fun, dressed the part in orange and blue with sheriff’s hats and revolvers and saved a damsel in distress. “The MAL-educated kids” dramatically tied up and duct taped their poor teacher before taking to the water for the first time. The NSRI team were not only there to keep everybody safe on the water – “The Men in Red” built their own raft and finished in second place overall. “Michael and the Bowlers” was the team that kept us entertained all day long and wowed us with their fifty four member choir and “navel” salute with Admiral Collins.

The team of the local newspaper, the EDGE, made history when, for the first time in five years, they did not fall apart at the start of the race, but made it to the finish line! It might have had something to do with the fact that they forgot to put the garden bench and the picnic table on their float “The Poseidon Adventure”….

This year’s drama and laughs were provided by the “O4’kers”. Their colourful raft was precision built and “Wille hond” looked stunning, but he was not going to be rowed on the murky waters of the Swartvlei Estuary! He threw his rowers off at the very start of the race and they had a hard time taming the beast. Their efforts had the crowd on the banks in stitches!

The overall winners of the day were “The Flintstones”. Not only did the extended Roos family look the part, they also won on the water with their Fred Flintstone car. The team took part in the Slow Festival parade on Sunday and once again entertained the crowd with their version of “Them Stones”.

The organisers of the Anything that Floats would like to thank their sponsor CIPLA for making this event possible.