Why move the raft?
Its not that far fetched, reading a lot of historical journals from the French & Indian War when I was doing research most soldiers/civilians couldn't swim and any body of water was a real obstacle back then.
Maybe Remy has some kind of weird superstition about not letting himself or any of his men touch large amounts of water. That would tie in well with the bathtub motif that runs through the film.
Hopefully, it will be a much better version than the one I have.
I have a copy of this dvd, courtesy of CJ. Seems like a portion is missing - they are building the raft (or whatever you call it, that fighter boat) and suddenly they are traveling on it. Any word if the BRD fills in what seems to be a missing few minutes on the BRD?