Cardboard Boat Race

A cardboard boat race, sometimes known as a boat regatta, is a common school-spirit competition for students of high school and college age.

The earliest documented cardboard boat regatta was the result of a design problem created by Davis Pratt at Southern Illinois University in 1962. See documentation at http://www.grantmaclaren.com/cardboard for the original problem statement, the design class and one successful contender.

A typical competition format allows competitors a fixed build time, using only a predetermined number of corrugated fiberboard sheets, glue, adding machine tape, and paint. Duct tape is also often a key ingredient. Once completed, teams must race their boats across a shallow pond, river, or swimming pool using similarly constructed oars. The boats will almost always flood, sink, or shred under the weight, mostly owing to the difficulties of waterproofing cardboard. Awards are often given out for effort and spirit, instead of victory.

Cardboard boat building and races are becoming more common place. Cardboard Boat races are now held in many areas including on the Atlantic Ocean. Each year since 2005, brave souls have gathered at Champney’s West Newfoundland to create and race their cardboard boat creations in the cold waters of Trinity Bay on the North Atlantic. Many unique vessels made from cardboard pasted together with duct tape and painted in all types of designs and colors, have been launched into the harbor. All the brave sailors made their runs attempting to paddle their creations about a quarter mile, out to a buoy marker and back to the beach, without getting wet. Some made it while other crews capsized, got dunked or flooded... much to the amusement of the crowd.

In September 2010, the Bayfront Maritime Center organized and hosted Erie, Pennsylvania's first-ever Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, with 15 entries and thousands of spectators.