THE ever-eccentric raft race down the Wye involving some of the oddest craft ever seen on the river looks like raising a record total of £20,000 for charity, the highest ever.

This year's race, organised by the Rotary Club of Monmouth and sponsored by The Crown at Whitebrook, is the 46th and saw a bumper flotilla of rafts take to the water. The bulk of the money raised will go to the nominated charity, St David's Foundation, with the remainder to a variety of local charities. 

Rotarian Norman Williams said: "The 2011 raft race was once again a huge success. We are now looking forward to be being able to hand over a substantial amount of money to St David's Foundation to help them to continue to provide their vital hospice in the home services throughout Gwent.

"We've already collected £16,600 and there are just under half the 57 entrants who've still to hand in their sponsorship money so we're confident that figure will increase quite considerably.

"I would expect the eventual total to get to around £20,000 by December. This estimate is based on previous years experience but, in these uncertain times, nobody really knows what affect the current national financial predicament will have on that estimate. So fingers crossed.

"However we'd particularly like to thank our wonderful sponsors, The Crown at Whitebrook, for their backing of the event for the second year in succession after coming on board as inaugural sponsors last year and helping us to reach a record total in terms of cash raised."

This year's entrants, who have not yet submitted sponsorship money, are kindly requested to get this in by November 11.

Planning has already started for next year's race from Monmouth Rowing Club to Tump Farm, Whitebrook, and a date has already been announced – Sunday, September 2.

•For full details on how to enter the 2012 race and anything else related to the event visit http://www.monmouth">www.monmouth raftrace.com or email monmouth [email protected]">[email protected] or call Rotarian David Forbes on 01600 712665 or Kris Broome at St David's Foundation on 01633 271364.