Singapore River Raft Race 2007

Pirates sail on Singapore River

It was a visual treat when students and staff in pirate costumes competed in the Inter-SP School Bamboo Warriors Race at this year's Singapore River Raft Race. Read on to find out who was the winner.


Pirates ruled the Singapore River on Sunday, 20 May. Eight rafts, manned by students and staff dressed as pirates, battled it out during a spectacular 100-metre race called 'Bamboo Warriors' at the annual Singapore River Raft Race. The event was inspired by the movie 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

The raft from the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering emerged the winner, followed by UN Pirates from Singapore Maritime Academy while the raft from the School of Chemical & Life Sciences came in third. It was not an easy task propelling the raft forward using bamboo poles to push against the river bed, remarked participant Captain Frederick Francis from Singapore Maritime Academy which took the Most Innovative 'Pirates Raft' title.

This year's event at Clarke Quay saw more than 100 rafts from secondary schools, ITEs, international schools, tertiary institutions and private companies taking part. The guest-of-honour, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, flagged of the first race.

Another highlight was the inaugural 'Walking on Water' event for secondary schools which was a 50-metree race using special floatation devices. Whitley Secondary School came in first in this event. For a similar event but this time for Singapore Polytechnic students, the first prize went to Tan Wei Kiang of the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering.

SP was the biggest winner this year, with rafts from the School of the Built Environment clinching the second and third places in the fastest race contest. This helped SP to emerge overall champions, sharing the victory with ITE College West. ITE Dover took the Most Innovative Raft title with their raft 'The Scorpion' while the Most Colourful Raft title went to 'Chilli Crab' of ITE Balestier.

As fund-raising is very much a part of RRR, a sum of $83,724 was collected for this year's beneficiaries - Autism Children's Centre, The Salvation Army Haven Children's Home, Clementi Student Service Centre and Singapore Polytechnic's Overseas Community Service Programme.

This year's event also featured various fringe activities including a special sail-past featuring characters from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean', canoe display, art contest, Food and Heritage Tour, in-line skating demonstration as well as rock-climbing, netball and floorball competitions.