Not Your Average Dinghy

The word “dinghy” doesn’t exactly evoke thoughts of speed. In South Australia, these everyday boats become high-octane race machines, as teams of two whip and spray through the murky Murray River.

Hitting speeds of 80 kilometers per hour, dinghies are gunned through tight channels, and then slow down to make hairpin turns. One crewmember steers with the outboard motor, while the “navigator” hangs on the front of the boat like a helmeted figurehead, leaning right and left to help shift the weight of the fast-moving dinghy and shouting advice over the roar of the motor.

Welcome to the Riverland Dinghy Derby, mate