Students start building cardboard boats for Saturday’s Homecoming race

Many students are prepping for the football game this Homecoming weekend against Eastern Michigan.

Others are encasing themselves in cardboard.

The 12th Annual Cardboard Boat Race, sponsored by Central Michigan University’s Engineering and Technology Department, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Rose Ponds next to the Student Activity Center.

These corrugated corsairs will not be racing for doubloons but for immortal glory, and some to get full credit in their EGR 120: Introduction to Engineering course.

Participants must sit three to four in a boat, paddle along the north Rose Pond, carry the boat over the land bridge, then drop it in the south Rose Pond and paddle down around the statue, all while competing against several other teams in the water and for the best time overall.

“There are usually 100 kids plus, (and) trials of five or six teams at a time,” said Livonia senior Steve Roell, four-year member of the CMU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

For the giggles

While the competition is required for EGR 120 students, many of the members of ASME are competing for the thrill of it.

“We’re entering two boats, mainly against the other student groups. It’s just another fun project for us to do,” said Battle Creek senior and president of ASME Jeremy Worthington. “We’ll kick butt, we’ve got plenty of smart people and two boats.”

It might be easy to imagine a cardboard boat as simply a box big enough for a few people to sit in with paddles, but teams that are going for the win are putting much more thought into their design and construction.

In-depth calculations regarding surface area and buoyancy are a must for a successful vessel, especially because each team is only allotted a very specific materials list consisting of cardboard sheets, duct tape and “liquid nails” that can be used as caulk or glue.

“It just seemed like a cool idea. (We’re building) a canoe with a triple-hull design,” said Lake Orion freshman Adam Bryce.

He was waterproofing the underside of “The Rum Runners” hull Tuesday with a roll of duct tape.

Canoes a popular choice

Canoe-inspired designs were a popular choice in the building room in the Engineering and Technology Building because of the slipstream design. The wedge-shaped ends of a canoe allow it to cut through the water effectively. But it also comes with hazards.

“Canoes are sweet as long as you don’t tip them,” Bryce said.

The long, relatively narrow shape makes this a constant concern.

But historical performance was a strong consideration as well.

“Whoever won, we tried to copy that boat,” Bryce said. “It was a canoe.”

The “Rum Runner” crew is hoping to get its boat done early before the rush of construction Friday, but Roell seems to be looking forward to it.

“I see it getting done very late Friday night, under the gun and with plenty of alcohol,” Roell said.