Race Day Cardboard Boat Race 2005

Article By Shorty
I apologize for not getting more photos of the races, my camera was having problems and was not working very well.

Here we are with our blue boat Cookie Monster with our 2 smallest girls, we are on the far side of the starting line. You can just barely see the bow with the yellow flag on it sticking forward of the white boat.

All the other boats at the starting line were manned by Boy Scouts.

The horn blew and we were off!!

The horn wasn't the only thing that blew off, the Cookie Monster decoration and a bunch of the cookies we taped to the deck blew off too. Not sure if they were snagged by another paddler or if they just fell off.

The girls made it past the first bouy and were on their way.

I think the main reason our girls were able to get ahead of the rest is because of our weeks of practice and their extreme desire to win. The Boy Scouts in their yellow catamaran was a superior boat design which the adults have proven to be much faster and more powerfull. They just didn't seem to be paddling that hard, and they didn't paddle together so their boat kinda looked like a splashing mess.

Rounding the final bouy and heading for the finish line.

Here is Oscar the Thin Mint heading for the launching chute.

Our 2 bigger girls manned Oscar. They lined up at the start line and had a start similar to the blue boat. When they got to the first turn, they unfortunately cut just to the inside. While the boat did touch the bouy, I don't think the girls understood the importance of going around the outside, so they continued on and were disqualified. They did great regardless, and are still young enough so they will probably enter again next year in the youth class.




Randy Smith sent some pictures of the girls in the final race. You can see their determination to win !!






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