Looking to add a little splash to this year’s Go 4th Festival, The Daily News has teamed with Longview Fibre to sponsor cardboard boat races on Lake Sacajawea. That’s right, cardboard boats. And we’re not talking about cute little toy boats — we’re talking about big boats with people on them.

Think it’s impossible to build a seaworthy cardboard boat? Tell that to the 1,500 people who participate each year in the Great Cardboard Boat Regatta®, an officially sanctioned event dreamed up at Southern Illinois University in 1974.

“Competition is not what we’re about at all. It’s all about the creativity and the ingenuity,” said Regatta Coordinator Terry Mathias, who will travel from Illinois to lead the regatta festivities at Lake Sacajawea’s Martin Dock.

Longview’s event on July 4 will be the first sanctioned Great Cardboard Boat Regatta® on the West Coast. Daily News staff cooked up the idea as a way to add a fun element to the Go 4th Festival weekend, said Marianne Chambers, the newspaper’s online and marketing director.

“We thought, what a perfect time to do it because there’s always a captive audience down there,” she said.

Special trophies and bragging rights will be awarded to winners of categories including most creative design, most attractive boat, team spirit, best-dressed team and most spectacular sinking. Registration is free.

Watching some of the boats collapse beneath the water as they cruise around a 200-yard course is only part of the thrill. The regatta becomes a wild showcase of the public’s imagination, Mathias said.

In his 20-plus years’ involvement with the regatta, Mathias has seen sea monsters, rafts towing shark fins behind them, Coke cans that open into Hawaiian outrigger canoes, fire trucks, a giant Tootsie roll, hot dogs and computers. He’s seen an 18-foot-long dragonfly boat with gossamer wings, a full-scale Huey military helicopter and a 46-foot-long, 10-foot-wide aircraft carrier with model airplanes on the sides.

“That doesn’t even begin to give you the range of it,” he said Thursday. “Once people get a little bit of craftsmanship behind them, then they start to get into it.”

Longview Fibre is providing free 96-inch-by-120-inch sheets of 200-pound strength corrugated cardboard to everyone who wants to give boat-building a shot. The pulp and paper product company thought The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta® would demonstrate the many interesting ways cardboard can be used and allow community members to show off their creativity, said Randy Nebel, chief operating officer of Longview Fibre.

“I hope people come out and enjoy it and either participate or watch,” said Nebel, who has agreed to help judge the regatta. “It just helps make the Fourth of July a little more fun.”

People can pick up free cardboard from 4-7 p.m. Thursday and June 3 in The Daily News’ back parking lot.

Though it hasn’t been firmed up yet, Mathias may come to Longview several weeks before the regatta to teach a boat-building clinic.

While the Great Cardboard Boat Regatta® could appear a perilous adventure, Mathias said no one’s ever been hurt in the event’s history, with the exception of perhaps a scraped knee.

“Safety is the No. 1 thing that we do,” he said.

Before Longview’s regatta, the course will be cleared of any underwater obstacles. Boat crews must wear shoes and life jackets. Most sites have medically trained personnel on hand, and safety boats will be stationed within 10-seconds’ reach of any boat on the water, Mathias said.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR GREAT CARDBOARD BOAT REGATTA PHOTO GALLERY

The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta®

The challenge: Design and build a human-powered boat made of corrugated cardboard capable of completing at least three heats around a 200-yard course.

The essential ingredient: Creative problem solving. Winning the race isn’t really the point. The focus is on fun, family, creativity and ingenuity.

Safety rules: Maximum of eight people per boat. Everyone must wear a life jacket, and everyone must be sober. Participants must provide their own life jackets and paddles.

How to get cardboard

People can pick up free cardboard from 4-7 p.m. Thursday and June 3 in The Daily News’ back parking lot. At that time, they’ll get an official copy of the boat-building rules (TDN is not allowed to post the rules online because they’re copyrighted) and be asked to pre-register so organizers will have a rough idea of how many folks may participate in the regatta.

Copies of the rules also may be picked up at The Daily News.

Acceptable boat types:

Class I: Propelled only by oars, kayak paddles, canoe paddles or similar tools. Boats must be made entirely of cardboard. For Class I only, there are two divisions: a youth division with everyone on the boat age 14 or under, and an open division for all ages. Youth division boats often will compete in both divisions.

Class II: Powered by some form of human power other than oars and paddles, such as propellers, paddlewheels, sails, “pontoon shoes,” “gerbil wheels,” etc. No motors. Swimming with a surfboard or similar craft is not allowed. The propulsion system (which transmits the force to move the boat, such as a paddle or sail) does not have to be made of cardboard. The points at which these touch the boat may be reinforced with small pieces of wood or other materials, but no large or long pieces of metal, wood or other material may be used.

Class III, the “Instant Boats”: Built on site during the event by spectators-turned participants using only the materials and tools contained in a “Sh-h-h-h-h!” Secret Kit. The Class III race is run at the end of the Regatta, and all these boats run at the same time.

Prizes (Specially made trophies):

Pride of the Regatta — for most creative design and best use of corrugated cardboard

Vogue Award — for most attractive or spectacular-looking boat

Team Spirit Award — for the team that has the most fun participating

Best-Dressed Team Award — self explanatory

Titanic Award — for the most spectacular sinking

Tips

• Decide what prize category you’re shooting for. Then come up with a design idea. Do you want it to look like a boat or something else? Anything goes!

• Build a model using a manila folder, heavy paper or lightweight cardboard to make sure your idea works before you waste any cardboard. Now is the time to see if that palm tree you’re building in the middle of your “desert island” makes the boat top-heavy.

• Make some calculations. For example, to figure out how much boat you will need for your crew, use this basic number: a cubic foot of water weighs about 62 pounds. So a boat has to have one square foot of bottom area for every 62 pounds of weight it will hold. So the bottom of a boat for one, 180-pound person would need to be about 3 square feet in size.

• Or you may choose to wing it and just start building your boat.

• Before you start construction on the full-size boat, make sure the finished product can fit through the door of wherever you build it.

• If you laminate layers of cardboard (double wall, 200-pound burst-strength), you can have strength and still keep your boat lightweight. Alternate the direction of the corrugations of each layer. Don’t step on your cardboard — you could break the corrugations and weaken your boat.

• Paint all the surfaces before gluing. Seal the cardboard’s edges with caulk or silicone to keep the cardboard dry. Then glue the parts together (carpenter’s glue works well). Don’t use a glue gun because that glue melts on hot days. Reinforced paper tape works well over caulked edges and seams.

• Not allowed (because they’re toxic): Two-part substances such as fiberglass resins, two-part epoxy glues and waterproof glues that are mixed just before they are applied. Other sealants, caulks and paints to decorate and waterproof boats are OK.

• Avoid oil-based stains, caulk and glue because the oil soaks into the cardboard and may never dry, weakening the cardboard.

• A flat bottom is recommended for stability.

• Longer boats go faster but are harder to turn.

• Boats shorter than 10 feet are hard to steer.

• Duct tape shrinks and clear tape melts when painted.

That’s it for tips. Remember, the fun is in the discovery!

Source: The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta®

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