Cardboard Boater? What’s Next At ACBS Shows? Tune In Monday To Find Out!
Brooklynn Gibson, 8, foreground, gets a push from Alan Ramspeck at the start of the Cardboard Boat race Saturday afternoon at Lake Chatuge. Gibson took advantage of a slower but drier start to easily win her heat of the race.
Well, Kentucky Wonder keeps finding more fun stuff on his computer from the Lake Chatuge show this past week. This time its some fun cardboard races. This is a very fun annual event at the big ACBS show, and something other shows should adopt. But what sort of judging standards are there? Is the duck tape from the same home depot source as the cardboard? What about the grain direction of the board? Is it original cardboard from a refrigerator, or did you buy it new by the sheet? Is that sharpie name you wrote on the side consistent with the period.. We have posed all these questions to the ACBS and tomorrow, Monday, there will be a huge announcement from the ACBS on these sorts of things so stay tuned. In the mean time, enjoy your Fathers Day with these fantastic photos… This is what its really all about..
Immediately after the start, it becomes apparent which racers have no chance at completing the course. Approximately one of five boats makes it to the turnaround point 25 yards from the start. Fortunately, the water is shallow and warm, and flotation vests are required of all entrants. The cannon in the background defends against would-be competitors like Miss America IX, which breaks the rules by using actual wood as its hull material.
The highly informational gauges and controls on a cardboard boat keep its caption heading in the correct direction. Note the lack of a bilge pump switch, the one thing needed more than anything.
Fortunately, the recovery of the cardboard boats is not nearly the same as for a normal wooden craft. They float long enough to drag them to shore.
Propelled by his father, a man known only as “H,” Chris Smith (age 2) steers his cardboard boat ahead of Ella Turner, 3, who is propelled by her mother, Jenna. The “Chris-Craft” boat, despite being pontoon-styled, easily completed the race course without sinking, while Ella’s did not fare as well.
A contestant wears his boat as a hat following its sinking during the Carboard Boat Race Saturday at Lake Chatuge.
We would love to see some of your fathers day photos today..
Thanks to the crew at Antique Boat Center for working the kinks out of our PIA MBL, we had a great time on Chattanooga’s beautiful Lake Chickamauga yesterday.
But Kent…The cardboard event was at Lake Chatuge down near the Ga./Carolina border Chicamaugwa is up in Tennessee. But the folks at the Boat Center probably know that…
The Duck Dynasty people are already everywhere…let’s keep them out of the ducT tape industry.
These boats are unfinished and don’t really help the kids learn what they are getting into. While I am a huge fan of duc(KT) tape, give them a tube of 5200 instead. Those who manage to glue their boat together with 5200, without gluing themselves and their parents to the work surface, should then get CPES to seal and preserve the cardboard, and a can of varnish for that shiny mirror like finish.
Yes, I know…..
This is a shot of my father taking a nap up on Cambell River in the tender while I was out collecting dinner of fresh oysters and clams. Good times out boating with the family.
Happy fathers day, Dad.
My dad on the bow of my uncle’s mahogany 17′ Larson, Sebago Lake, Maine – c. 1954
I am going to try this, but am using Windows 7 now and don’t know what size this pic is.
Dad is in the bottom picture in Yorktown and Uncle Dicky and Marie are with the Cobra.
Not sure of these details, but I suspect these were take in NH for a Winnipesaukee show in the 70’s.