5 try to stay afloat
Cardboard boat race brings out ingenuity
Twelve-year-old Griffin Girard has been making objects out of cardboard since he was five, but Saturday was the first time he tried floating a cardboard boat in water.
He was one of five who entered the Rolater Regatta Cardboard Boat Race, which benefits the Alton Holman Heritage Arts Inc., on Saturday.
The boats could only be held together with a small amount of duct tape or glue.
Griffin’s boat, sporting a windshield, spoiler and motor made out of cardboard, looked like a regular speedboat. He named it the S.S. Boaty McBoat Face.
“If it turned out to be a fail, I’d rather go down in this water than at home,” Griffin said.
However, his boat didn’t fail. In fact, he won first
place in the middle school division.
A student at Berry Middle School, Griffin said the most complex cardboard creation he has
made was a working skeeball machine.
Logan Faslun, 7, was a last-minute entry.
His boat wasn’t painted, but it kept out of the water well enough for him to win first place in the elementary school division.
When the registration attendant asked him what he wanted to name his boat, he said the “Shipwreck.”
“I named it Shipwreck because it’s probably going to wreck,” Logan said, adding he wasn’t worried about sinking because his life jacket would probably make him float.
However, he made it across the lake in less than a minute, a recorded time fast enough to win.
Two younger children tried to paddle their way across Rolater Lake in the S.S. Chicken Little, but it capsized after traveling roughly 8 feet on the lake.
Larry Wilkins, father of Chicken Little’s co-captains Hosanna Grace Wilkins, 5, and Caden Tanner’s pastor at the Way of the Cross Church, said the youth program at the church helped paint and build the boat.
“We just kind of folded it up and threw it together,” Wilkins said, adding they were curious how long it would stay afloat.
Their answer came as the boat capsized about
20 seconds into the race.
Hosanna said she enjoyed painting the S.S. Chicken Little and she couldn’t wait for the race.
Annie Morrow, the director of AHHAS, said a second boat race will be held in the future and she hopes for more participants.