Hordes turn out to enjoy 40th Non Mariners Race (Update)

Race heavyweights the Mariners Rugby Football Club kept up to their usual high standards though the float was first to sink.

Standing about six feet from the ground, the bucket had Bermuda Industrial Union boss Chris Furbert’s face brandished across the side of the craft in a jibe at the union’s boycott of the fast food giant.

'United We Float, In Pieces We Sink' was the message across the back of the craft.

In second place was the ‘Non-Sastainable Fishing' float which referenced the environmental damage caused by long line fishing and invasive lionfish.

In third place was the Parliamentary Boxing float satirising the scuffle between ministers Derrick Burgess and Michael Scott.

Ted Gosling of Gosling’s Rum is a perennial for the Non mariners event and this year he entered the Black Seal Dark and Stormy float complete with the seal and barrel and the hurricane symbol on the back.

Race MC Bruce Barritt told the Bermuda Sun: “I always try to see the non-craft on the beach because there’s absolutely no guarantee they will get too far on the course.

“For political comment and satire, for me the two neck and neck would have been Parliamentary Boxing and KFC float the non boycott, they did a really, really good job.”

Another entry was the Corona float entered by a group of MSA graduates who had it on their bucket list to enter the race.

Hordes of people gathered at Sandys Boat Club to enjoy the race and other traditions surrounding it such as the Non-Penguin Fly By, the Non-Calypso Pipe Band complete with dancers, and the Non-Memorial to Our Mascot.

Money donated to charities of the winners’ choice were the Sea Cadets, Meals on Wheels and the Bermuda Sailors Home.

Race MC Bruce Barritt said of the fortieth non-event: “It was absolutely great, there were six non-craft, a huge pleasure craft fleet, a decent crowd and a lovely breeze. It’s been beautiful for forty years — let’s keep it going for another forty or more.”