Students paddle across cold ponds for Cardboard Boat Race
Central Michigan University students rowed across Rose Ponds in handmade boats to compete in the 16th annual Cardboard Boat Race Saturday.
The homecoming tradition included engineering students in the first six heats and opened the competition up to anyone interested in the last heat.
“We focused on building a sturdy and steady boat, not fast, so we stayed up on the water,” Sterling Heights freshman Marcellus Spinks said.
Spinks' boat, 'Miracle Workers,' won first place in the first heat.
“We tried to get in sync," he said. "One of my teammates counted one, two, three and then we would all stroke. It helped once we all started getting tired."
In each heat, it was common to see at least one boat take water and sink. Many teams who sank in last year’s race came back this year to recover their reputation.
“We want to prove our professors wrong," said Monroe junior Bryan Wallace. "They’re all here watching us. We sank last year, so they’re just waiting for us to sink again."
Last year’s sinking gave way to their unofficial team name this year: 'We Did the Math This Time.'
“We did the calculations for buoyancy multiple, multiple times,” Wallace’s teammate, St. Johns senior Caleb Bancroft, said.
Once in the boat, Bancroft relied on his teammates to make it to the finish line.
“Our strategy was sleek and fast," Bancroft said. "We had good teamwork with strong rowing. We had great team chemistry."
Students had numerous strategies for staying afloat, including figuring out the perfect sized surface area and length and arranging riders in the right positions.
For their boat, We Did the Math This Time duct taped the entire bottom of their boat.
“Our theory is that it’s water proof,” Bancroft said.
To keep the competition fair, each team was allowed $100 in boat bucks to buy cardboard, duct tape and liquid nails. No other materials were allowed.
Students could use their boat bucks to buy whatever amount of the materials they needed until they ran out of money.
After the race was over, students were not allowed to keep their boats due to safety reasons.
“We have to destroy them because (people) have taken them out of the dumpsters before and tried to use them again in the ponds,” Spinks said.
