{gallery}1314/i22/cardboard{/gallery} The E-Days Cardboard Boat Race found people gathering on the sides of Clear Creek on Saturday morning. The morning provided excellent weather for the race; however, the water of Clear Creek was a little chilly. After their races, various contestants stated that their legs were still shaking and tense after about an hour. But that is what happens when people try to sail down a river two days after a snow storm. Luckily for all of the contestants and for the school, no one was harmed during the cardboard boat race.
There was a large variety of boats at the race, everything from rocket ships to rafts to Pokemon. With the theme of GalaxE-Days, a large variety of boats came a range of creative names, some inspired by Sci-Fi television shows or movies and some simply witty. Some of the most memorable names were: ‘A Little Piece of Ship’, ‘Jimmy Neutron’ and ‘Discovere’.
As these majestic boats headed down Clear Creek, not all of them did as well as others. Some of the boats lost small decorative pieces of cardboard but there were other, less lucky contestants who lost their entire ship to the rapids. But sometimes losing a boat was not that bad; the worst was when passengers of the boats lost their oars and were left stuck either in the shallows or squished against a rock. Sometimes observers, other contestants or even other team members were able to help them out. More often than expected, contestants would get out of their own boats in order to pull them from the shallows or over small rocks.
One of the frequent occurrences during the cardboard boat race saw boats being turned every which way. This led to some participants becoming stranded because they could no longer see where they were going. However, in order to avoid this pitfall, some teams had people facing in different directions. The ability to do that though, depended on the number of people in the boat. Some teams were made of just two or three people but there were others with more. One team even managed to make a big enough boat to fit eight people; however, this led to other issues such as their boat becoming too weighed down. There was even one team, ‘A Little Piece of Ship’ that appeared to only have one person in the boat because three of the other passengers fell out long before anyone saw them inside of it.
With each new road block, or river block, participants were forced to say goodbye to sections of their boats. Luckily children all along the banks were eager to seize up any discarded pieces of soggy cardboard; however, even with all of that help there is still sure to be numerous pieces of cardboard still drifting down Clear Creek, perhaps for weeks to come.
In the end, it was Team Jimmy Neutron who pulled ahead and won with the fastest time with a little more than 3 minutes, leaving all of their components behind in their ripples. Their boat was well constructed and looked like a rocket ship, but in addition to that, it was conveniently the same shape as a kayak or a canoe. This allowed them to be able to steer it like a kayak or a canoe. This saved them in the end as they were able to comfortably maneuver around rocks and sandbars. At the finish, they showed everyone watching that a cardboard boat can, in fact, stand up to the currents of Clear Creek and they definitely inspired many onlookers to participate in next year’s Cardboard Boat Race.
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