Image of the Week: The Perfectly Giant Raft-Up

In early August, speedonthewater.com presented an Image of the Week by photographer Jay Nichols called, “The Perfect Raft-Up.” The image came from the 2011 Jackson River Rally Poker Run in Florida, and it presented an impressive fleet of high-performance powerboats, all neatly tied to one another in several three- to-five-boat lines.

Raft-up lines of go-fast boats formed social bridges during the 2012 Lake Cumberland Poker Run. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples image.

How long can those lines of go-fast boats get? Pretty darn long—as this image Nichols captured during last weekend’s Lake Cumberland Poker Run in Kentucky proves. There are more than 30 boats in each of the larger unbroken lines in the photo. And who knows how long the line of boats on the left side of the image goes as it exits the frame?

A raft-up, especially one this large, is the poker run version of a social network.

Looking at this photo, you can feel the good time being had by all. And that’s one of the marks of a great photo—it doesn’t just capture the literal content of the moment. It captures the context and emotion behind it.

Related Story: Image of the Week: The Perfect Raft-Up