When Is A Race, Not Really A Race?

Its that time of year again where Fairbanks, Alaska has been celebrating the discovery of Gold by Felix Pedro back in the early 1900's.  The chamber of commerce sponsors a street fair, a parade, a rubber ducky race, entertainment, a moving jail, and a regatta.  Unfortunately, the regatta had to be postponed at least one week due to the river being at its highest all year and it is currently under a flood warning.

The regatta is one of those crazy things that Alaskan's do after a long winter.  The regatta is a boating event but it is not a race.  It is a celebration of floating creativity that celebrates all that is gold.

The rules are interesting in that you may have an engine but you cannot use it.  All people mus have a properly approved life jacket and if there are children on the boat there must be at least one adult with them.

The boats, well I guess you could call them that, are sometimes already made paddle boards or Kayaks but others have allowed their creative side to emerge and they decorate the rubber dingys and turn them into a work of art.

This is such a crazy event that they give out four awards.  One is for the creation that has the best use of the Golden Days Theme.  Another is for the boat with the best Alaskan Ingenuity which may include the use of duck tape and tarps.  The third is for the one that is the Least Seaworthy.  It can leak, have holes, or barely be above water but it must cross the finish line. They do ask people trying for this category to have a set of dry clothing to change into before accepting the award.  The last award is for Judges Choice which means they are looking for the most creative boat.

If you are interested in what the creations look like, you can check out the website to see some from previous years.  I don't have pictures because its usually on the Sunday and I do not usually head into town on Sunday's especially as I'm packing to leave town. So I've listed two sites that have pictures you can checkout to see how creative people get.

1. http://susanstevenson.com/blog/2015/07/golden-days-red-green-regatta-2015/  The pictures are down toward the bottom.

2. These are from the 2012 and are via one of the local stations.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/kuac-fm-tv/sets/72157630773573416/