More of the Other Cardboard Boat Participants

Article By Shorty
I tried to get pictures of all the boats that I could, but know I missed a bunch. I am not sure exactly how many boats showed up. It looked like about 50 boats including the 10 instant boats from kits that the organizers raffled on the day of the race.

This is Randy Smith's boat "Hula". He won the adult Class 1 Adult Division, this is the 3rd year in a row he has won with this design! It is a classic cardboard catamaran design with the 2 hulls and holds the maximum crew of 10 people. The boat's best qualities is it's brute force, the captain calls out "STROKE!", everyone paddles together and the whole thing surges forward at incredible speeds.

The "Eruptor" came in a close 2nd place for the Class 1 Adult Division. It used a crew of 2 people. It is a lighter boat, and can turn quicker, but isn't as fast as the super catamaran.

The 2 guys crewing the boat looked very athletic, I think to make a boat like this work you have to be a really good athelete.

After the race when the boats were thrown away, our girls grabbed a couple of volcanos and used them as hats. They provide a lot of shade and worked good, will have to consider making hats like that for our team in the future!

The Boy Scouts obviously did their homework and built a catamaran just like Hula, only it was a little smaller. They did very well with it, it is a very simple and easy boat to build yet is effective.

Some girls from ASU built a Willy Wonka boat, and all of them painted their faces. I took this photo early in the morning and never got to get another photo of the whole crew, they all looked great with their painted faces.





The boat in the middle "Lewis & Clark" has been in the past 2 years races making this it's third race. Towards the end it was falling apart and the interior was flooded, but it made it across the finish line!

The boat on the right matches the hat made as an award for the media race. I was a bit puzzled on where the crew would sit, my first thought was that it was upside down, and when flipped it would have seats. I found John who built it, and he said what they were going to do was cut the top off just before the race.

Another one that I coudln't figure out where to sit in, but just like the fish, the top was cut off for seating. Also made by John.

You are required to have open top cockpits, so just before the race the top was cut off this car. It made it just to the first bouy and then it folded in half and sank.

There is a cute little canoe just to the right of it.

Here are my girls and they spotted this boat about 100 yards away, and of all the boats they saw, this was their favorite. I bet a PDRacer could be made to look like that!

Neat dolphins !

This boat was hilarious, I was expecting something to be added on or cut off to make a crew compartment, but when launched they just sat on top and paddled. Having sailed a Sailboat Made From A Hot Tub, I can tell from experience that is one of the worst hydrodynamic shapes, but hey, it sure looked like a lot of fun and nothing else looked like it!

This was the smallest boat there, I am guessing only about 4' long. It was in the youth division and it carried 4 kids!


Back to Main Page