The Totnes Raft Race, known as ‘The River Dart Struggle ‘ will be held on Sunday, 6th October 2019. It takes place along the river Dart starting at Dart Bridge, Buckfastleigh, and on through a mixture of white water, fast flowing weirs and calm stretches, and makes its way down to the finish in Totnes, a distance of some 13 Kilometres. This is acknowledged as one of the great river challenges and 2017 saw 51 rafts entered. This is an ideal corporate or group team building exercise, but with a difference, each team must make their own raft out of a restricted list of approved materials. Crews between 2 to 10 people per raft, all male, all female or mixed, over the age of 18, can take part in an exciting struggle to the finish.
A lot of rafters were disappointed last year when we had to cancel the River Dart Struggle because the water level in the River Dart was too low.
Even though it has rained a lot in the past few weeks, water levels have not recovered so we have a back-up plan.
If the upper river is too low to launch at Buckfastleigh we will launch at Folly Pool Dartington (by kind permission of the Dartington Estate). This will avoid the driest stretches and the weirs at Buckfastleigh and Staverton.
There will be enough water to paddle down to Totnes Weir, struggle over the weir itself and splash into the tidal section of river. It’s then downstream to Longmarsh Totnes, turn the raft around and a timed sprint back to the finish, about 700 metres.
Launch times at Dartington will be later to coincide with the tides at Totnes.
We will make the final decision on which route to use on 29 September – watch the website and Facebook for details.
The entry form has been amended so you can let us know if you do not want to take part in the shorter route in which case all your monies will be refunded if the long race does not go ahead.
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