Student engineers race cardboard boats

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Students competing in cardboard boat races on the ponds by the Student
Activity Center got wet while testing the construction of their vessels.

The first two members of the winning team paddled quickly through
the first pond, getting soaked as they jumped out to carry the boat to
the second pond, where they switched team members.

The second two members used what was left of their limp paddles to finish the race.

Team member Bryan Fortney, Ithaca freshman, yelled “stoke, stroke,
stroke,” to get his teammates into a rhythm on their way to the winning
time of eight minutes and 35 seconds.

One of the paddles broke and they turned to paddling with their hands, so Fortney worked to encourage them.

“They looked like they were starting to slow down,” he said.

The team members said there were a couple reasons for their success.

“We had a good design and our paddles were somewhat sturdy,” Fortney said.

Wynn Michalak, Caro freshman, said the catamaran design of the boat helped in the race.

“It was totally a team effort,” Michalak said. “We won because of
our design. We just had a long narrow boat, which made it faster.”

Michalak said there were 11 teams in the race and his team was in
the last group, so they learned some strategies from everyone who went
before them.

“We knew exactly what time to get and saw how the others ran and stroked through the course,” Michalak said.

He said they didn’t use all of the materials permitted by the rules, which helped keep the boat lighter.

Other team members who contributed to the win were Holt freshman Chris Tongen and Fowlerville freshman Andrew Burton.

Terry Lerch, assistant professor in Industrial Engineering and
Technology,  said the races started early because they had 11
entries to get through before the football game started.

“We had one boat built by seniors and one built by Russian exchange students, but the other nine were from our class,” he said.