Chattahoochee Raft - 1975

In the 1970s a springtime tradition in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA was "The Great Chattahoochee Raft Race". Sponsored by a local pop radio station, it was a good excuse for folks to float the very calm waters of the Chattahoochee River and party. When entering the "race" there were categories from a solo inner tube up to a riverboat - where the more industrious would build actual multi-person rafts. At the time I was in the Key Club at Ridgeview High School, and my friend Jim Johnson approached me about the possibility of our club entering the "Riverboat" category of the race. Jim's father worked at an aluminum-processing warehouse and he volunteered to build a raft for us.

We only had time to inspect the raft, no time to test its seaworthiness, and decided that it would fit atop the roof of my father's Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon. It was assembled entirely from aluminum, weighed a few hundred pounds, but we all know that anything can float as long as it displaces enough water. So on the Friday night before the race we hauled the raft up to the Morgan Falls Dam - where the race would begin on Saturday morning. Hanging out by our raft I remember someone walking past, taking a look, and saying, "It'll never float".

I don't remember where or how we slept that night, but the next morning, when prompted by the PA announcer, we lugged the raft over to the water's edge and then into the first few feet of the water. The surface of the raft barely broke the surface of the water. In no way could any of us sit atop the raft and float the river. Yes, the raft had pontoons, which displaced some water, but not nearly enough! It seems that math was not a part of the design process. Disappointed and embarrassed, we "floated" the raft out of the way and tied it to a tree so we could come back later and retrieve it. We walked back to the car and went for some breakfast.

Later that day we drove to Morgan Falls to retrieve the raft, the launch spot was empty as everyone had begun their float. We started to tug on the raft to pull it from the water and realized that it was quite a bit heavier than before... the pontoons were not fully sealed and had filled up with water! At that point we were glad that the boat didn't float in the first place! As we tugged on the raft it would not budge in the mud near the river's edge. Someone was walking by and spoke a line that I will never forget: "Looks like you'll need some Egyptian Leverage". Turns out that Egyptian leverage, at least in our case, consisted of finding some long metal rods, placing them perpendicular to the metal pontoons, and then letting the pontoons slide on metal instead of mud. It worked. We pulled the raft onto the shore, paused to let the water drain from the pontoons, then lifted it onto the station wagon. I know that the raft sat at my home for a while, but I'm not sure about its ultimate fate... maybe Jim took it back to its origin.

Thanks to Jim Johnson and his father for building the raft.
In the picture below, see the raft on top of the Vista Cruiser, with Tim McElhannon, John Hankins and myself.

Paul Schwotzer / Jan2015