What is it like taking part in the Maidstone River Festival raft race? Andrew Gorrie from the Southern Minis Owners Club gives an insight.

"It was hell out there I can tell you, desperately outnumbered, odds stacked against us - the enemy everywhere, we were lucky to come out of it alive! Very funny day all in all though....for some reason everyone on the river had it in for us and most of them had buckets of water with our names on."

"Mini #1 fell at the first post, went belly up and the crew were forced to abandon ship, we suspect it was torpedoed - thou others seem to say it was unbalanced by one of the crew attempting to water bomb the Mowlem raft.

"Anyway, a spot of pimms later we made it to the start line and jockeyed for position, waiting for starters orders - the raft was solid and stable (mostly due to being constructed entirely of knots) then disaster struck, the wind picked up......as ever other rafts paddled off into the distance we could barely hold station what seemed like hours later we had only made 10 meters progress and were done for.

"Luckily we managed to flag down a passing motor boat (and canoes) the first good samaritan got a rapid physics lesson when he tried to apply full throttle on his tiny inflatable - the nose of his boat went vertical, his outboard engine had a bath and narrowly avoided going to the depths..... eventually we got some assistance from a slightly larger craft who could just about pull us along.

"By this time the Dalmatian raft was doing laps of honour but our spirits weren't dampened, time to break out the bottle of bubbly. perhaps a minor redesign for next time then eh? (more cup holders required - rather awkward pouring the drinks)."

Visit the picture gallery at http://gorrie.zapto.org/index.htm