Cardboard Boat Races

There are only three ingredients for this project—stacks of cardboard, rolls and rolls of duct tape—and a lot of hope.

"There are thirty six boats," said Daphne Middle School's, Anita Root.

6th, 7th and 8th grade humanity students at Daphne Middle were formed into teams. They spent several weeks constructing their boats.

"Actually there are cardboard boat races all over the world," said Root.

Parents and fellow students cheered them on as three heats of cardboard vessels took to Mobile Bay at the Fairhope Pier. From simple canoe like designs, to modern marvels of aquatic engineering that might have looked better on paper.

Some challenged Neptune to experience the sweet thrill of victory. Others suffered the agony of the deep. Yet even they are winners—along with 1st 2nd and
3rd place, the Titanic award is given to the fastest sinker.

And the first place crew actually broke a world record—at least a Daphne world record.

"The fastest time used to be 4 minutes and 23 seconds—right now the fastest boat for this race is 3 minutes and 29 seconds," said Root.

"Our boat is over there, its called ‘the boat’ number ten," said one student.

"We’re Jaws—Ja ja jaws," said his teammate.

Others were just lucky enough to ‘place’ back at the beach.

Bill: "Alright, Trina—this was your boat what was it called?"

Trina: "SS Stranded."

Bill: "And what happened to it?"

Trina: "It died."

Bill: "Well as you can see a lot of these kids were left with boats that were intact. Some were left with a big pile of cardboard and tape. What are you going to do with it?

Trina: "I don’t know. I think we’ll send it to the junkyard."

Bill: "The junkyard. That’s great."