Re: WNAP Raft Race

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updated May 5, 2001

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Posted by Chris Hodapp (68.57.205.14) on August 24, 2006 at 19:11:43:

In Reply to: Re: WNAP Raft Race posted by Chris Hodapp on June 14, 2003 at 02:46:57:

I was speaking with a friend a few months back who reminded me that the station had endless problems with the police department, who were understandably concerned about several hundred drunks and dope smokers floating down the river in watercraft of questionable seaworthiness. To say nothing of the miniature Woodstock-like atmosphere in the park. The Chief of the Indianapolis Police Department was a man with the unlikely name of Winston Churchill.

Getting rafts out at the broad Ripple end was a miserable job in the first year, and there was a terrible logjam on the boat ramp as sun-baked, half-drunk crews wrestled their creations back onto trailers. More than a few cars got dragged down into the river as drivers and rafters fumbled on the steep ramp. Many rafts were just left behind, which I'm sure pleased the Parks Department. By the second year, the National Guard showed up with a portable crane to quickly yank the ragtag flotilla out of the river and plop them on trailers. It was at least a more efficient exit strategy.

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: I was speaking with a friend a few months back who reminded me that the station had endless problems with the police department, who were understandably concerned about several hundred drunks and dope smokers floating down the river in watercraft of questionable seaworthiness. To say nothing of the miniature Woodstock-like atmosphere in the park. The Chief of the Indianapolis Police Department was a man with the unlikely name of Winston Churchill. : Getting rafts out at the broad Ripple end was a miserable job in the first year, and there was a terrible logjam on the boat ramp as sun-baked, half-drunk crews wrestled their creations back onto trailers. More than a few cars got dragged down into the river as drivers and rafters fumbled on the steep ramp. Many rafts were just left behind, which I'm sure pleased the Parks Department. By the second year, the National Guard showed up with a portable crane to quickly yank the ragtag flotilla out of the river and plop them on trailers. It was at least a more efficient exit strategy.

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