Last year, I wrote about the first annual Cardboard Kayak Race, held on City of Water Day at Governors Island. This year, I was in it!
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. We didn’t build a boat out of cardboard and then race it. But others did! And I was part of a fleet of “safety kayaks” whose job it was to rescue paddlers whose cardboard boats sank (and fish out the sodden detritus).
The challenge was straightforward: Each team (of up to 6 people) had to build a kayak from nothing but cardboard and tape. Specifically, the materials provided were: 10 sheets of 6 ft by 6ft corrugated cardboard; 3 rolls of black gaffing tape; and 10 rolls of clear waterproof packing tape. Teams could bring their own tools, including wooden jigs, tape measures, knives, and the like. But the final product had to be constructed of nothing but the cardboard and tape supplied.
The term “kayak” was largely notional: Any design was acceptable, so long as it floated and could be paddled by two team members. Many boats, including some of the best performing, had high sides and a flat bottom. And one intrepid team built a cardboard paddleboard!
The racers had 2 hours to design and build the boats. Then it was time to race! The course ran out from Governors Island’s Pier 101 to a white buoy about 50 yards away; racers paddled out to the buoy, turned around, and paddled back.
The only catch? The race had several heats, and the winning boats then raced each other in semi-finals and the final. So the (increasingly waterlogged) cardboard of the winning boats had to withstand as many as three trips. And as the rules rather drolly state, “Boats that disintegrate mid-race will be disqualified.”
What happened? Did boats disintegrate? And who won?
Watch the slideshow to see. I will say that the final race was a nailbiter, pitting a beautifully-designed honest-to-God kayak (manned by two veteran paddlers from the North Brooklyn Boat Club) against last year’s reigning champions, Stevens Institute of Technology, in a deep-sided, flat-bottomed craft. Vlad captured the whole exciting story from his vantage point on dry land.
(Click on any photo to start slideshow—and be sure to read the captions!)
The raw materials (photo by Johna)
The kayak-makers
Taking shape
Measuring it out
What is it?
The scene on Kayak Hill
Serious business
Everyone can help
Boxy
There’s plenty of tape
This looks like a sturdy, seaworthy boat
Conference
Patriotic
This one really looks like a kayak
Waterproof compartments :-)
Close attention
Careful inspection
Hands
Neat and trim
Rotate!
Final wrap
Team effort
This one has a long way to go still…
Spectators
Just a few minutes of building time left
It’s done! A formal portrait of the SS Stevens and crew—last year’s winners!
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will challenge
Magic inscriptions will keep the ship safe
Nautically appropriate decorations
Plenty of cardboard left for matching headgear
It’s as ready as it will ever be
Banana figurehead
All kayaks are assembled
The kayaks for the first heat are carried down to the dock. SS Stevens comes first. Whether intentionally or not, it has a swede form…
Carried by their crews. Note the keep fin!
More a pram than a kayak ;-)
In the water
And they’re off!!
SS Stevens has a good start. The paddlers are well synchronized :-)
The others follow in its wake
… but SS Stevens has already rounded the buoy
… and cruises …
… to victory in the first heat
The battle for second place
Everyone reacts…
… a bit differently…
… to the experience
The kayaks for the second heat come down. First the banana boat…
Into the water… and a capsize right at the dock!!
They remount… but not for long
Monitor vs. Merrimack?
Sharp turn around the buoy
… and all out for home!
Nancy and Tim
Oops!
They are determined!
Still, with everyone else capsized, the banana boat wins this one
But behind, a desperate struggle unfolds
They make it back :-)
Johna and Erik retrieve the fallen
… to be hauled off ignominiously
Third heat
A little nervous, perhaps?
Watching and wondering when their turn will come…
They were right to be nervous
… and their turn comes soon enough
They try to remount
The Coast Guard Auxiliary powers by
…. leaving the rescuing to others, for once
Cruising to victory in the third heat
The green kayaks clean up the course
Unwieldy whale
Fourth heat
Into the boats
Will the pontoons help?
A folding kayak!
Johna (and Erik) to the rescue!
Fish it out, bring it back to the dock
… and haul it away!
Fifth heat
A chaotic start
Note the unique push-pull crew arrangement at top left…
Collision and capsize!
Remount! … or at least remount attempt…
The Coast Guard, well synchronized, has gone round the buoy and cruises back through the carnage
Easy victory in the fifth heat
Behind, multiple rescues are in progress
Swimming back to the dock
Bring in the casualties
Haul them away
the first semi-final!
The banana boat looks a bit bedraggled, while the trim shark awaits
But the crew is willing
They barely leave the dock
… before doom overtakes them
The shark…
… cruises to victory
The second semi-final!
Powerful teams both
They go all out
… but these guys are just a bit too good
And now the final!! Tension builds…
SS Stevens vs. The Whitefish
SS Stevens comes round the buoy first!
The Whitefish powers round
… but SS Stevens has a big lead
SS Stevens wins the 2014 Con Edison Cardboard Kayak Race!
… with The Whitefish in second place
Smiles of victory
Motivation revealed
After the race, The Whitefish goes out for a spin… just a little too sharp a spin
Cowboy self-rescue on a cardboard kayak
Back on the boat!
… for a moment, at least
And now The Whitefish heads…
… along with all the others, into the great Graveyard of Cardboard Kayaks
Hi Frank–Spot on. The tape provides a lot more than just waterproofing. If you pay close attention to the SS Stephens boat (along with others) you’ll see that its tensile strength is an important part of the design….. Good stuff! Thanks for reading, and posting.
Thank you so much for the story and photos! Our team had 4 kids ages 9-11 (the pram design :), and protective decorations!) so while we paddled, only some shaky video was recorded. Nice to have these memories!
Of course!! :) But, hey, our craft was sound enough that hours later, after the race, we were able to take all the kids out for a short spin. I would post a pic of that here, but don’t know how! I posted some of your pics with attribution and a link to your blog on my Facebook page. Thanks again!
(To answer your technical question, it’s a matter of where the photo resides. If your photo is hosted somewhere publicly accessible, you can just post the link in a comment here for it to be displayed. Otherwise, you would have to send the actual photo to us for it to be hosted here, and displayed.)
I know all about memories, and am glad to have preserved some for you! Looking through my photos, I see I have some others of your team that I didn’t use (there were just too many photos!). If you would like to have them, let me know (you can contact us through the “Contact Us!” page) :-)
As Frank Winters commented above, these are really tape vessels with cardboard backing. So the more tape, the more waterproof the boat will be. Without enough tape, the cardboard will get soggy and disintegrate quite soon. And the tape ensures that all the parts hold together—if you put the tape in the right places. Many of the boats folded up right away. And of course nothing will help you if your boat is seriously unstable and capsizes repeatedly…
I cannot help but laugh looking at the photos. I feel like I was there. What a fun event for everyone. It would have made me sick to my stomach just laughing at the mishaps esp. Everyone’s a great sport.
Well, it was pretty safe—a sunny, warm water, help right at hand… But we did watch some of the wobbly boats and so wanted them not to capsize, all the while knowing that the next second they would…
Really, I had no idea I’d taken that picture until I looked at the pictures on the computer later at home. Then we fell over ourselves laughing for about five minutes… :-)
Some out for a duck, some in for a duck. What super fun you all seem to have had. Tell me – did anybody lazily opt for a raft and – had it been lashing rain, would the event have still gone ahead? Thanks for giving me this chuckle Johna and Vladimir. Terrific post.
Well, Nancy and Tim and their team did build something like a raft—
but that was no means a lazy solution. On the contrary, it took a lot of hard work to build up many layers of cardboard into a structure that was flat and stiff, with a lot of empty space inside so that it would float high enough. (Unfortunately, theirs proved to be not quite watertight, I think, and gradually filled up with water and started to capsize during the race…)
Lashing rain? That normally shouldn’t have stopped the event—kayakers are used to getting wet, although there might have been fewer spectators with fancy cameras—but, on the other hand, the cardboard might have gotten wet before its time…
I bow to thee N & T, well done, both of you. As for you, Johna and Vladimir, you have me singing again whilst Messing About on the River. Glad it didn’t rain and dissolve all the crafts too soon, such Jolly Boating Weather,…what!?
I had no idea I was so behind on your blog! This is hilarious and I wondered who won until I watched the video. How long does an average craft last? The US Coast Guard team looked pretty serious : )
The Coast Guard teams (there were two of them) were both serious contenders, but the Stevens team and the North Brooklyn Boat Club team were just a bit better…
As you probably could see, the average craft didn’t last long enough even for one heat ;-)
Vladimir Brezina (RIP)
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
Johna Till Johnson
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
Great fun! I am a huge fan of clear packing tape — I’d say these are tape vessels with cardboard backing.
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Hi Frank–Spot on. The tape provides a lot more than just waterproofing. If you pay close attention to the SS Stephens boat (along with others) you’ll see that its tensile strength is an important part of the design….. Good stuff! Thanks for reading, and posting.
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That’s a cool challenge. It’s got to be cool to see all the teams’ ingenuity, and even failures are bound to be a lot of fun.
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Oh yeah! I had high hopes for Nancy and Tim’s paddleboard. Unfortunately some water got in at one corner… and that was all she wrote.
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OMG. It’s an amazing story, wonderful photos… I enjoy it so much! What a nice way to start my day! Thank you!
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Glad to hear it! Thanks for reading, viewing, and posting!
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Well that was fun!
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We thought so! Thanks for posting!
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Fun! Thanks.
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You’re welcome! Thanks for reading.
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Love it! What fun!
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Oh, you’d have loved it! And it was fun.
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Too much fun. How fortunate to be there… and capture the spirit!
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Yes! It was great to be on the water as a safety boater.
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Awesome, looks like so much fun and pretty cool you actually paddle them!!! Sound like so much fun!
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Thanks! It was!
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Oh what fun! Thank you! My day is made and I have sent the blog along to others I know will love it!
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We are so glad to have made your day, Michael! :-)
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Looks like some crazy fun. They are fortunate to have you as a safety boater.
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Yes, the safety boaters were very much in demand this year :-)
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Thank you so much for the story and photos! Our team had 4 kids ages 9-11 (the pram design :), and protective decorations!) so while we paddled, only some shaky video was recorded. Nice to have these memories!
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I meant pram in the nautical sense, of course ;-)
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Of course!! :) But, hey, our craft was sound enough that hours later, after the race, we were able to take all the kids out for a short spin. I would post a pic of that here, but don’t know how! I posted some of your pics with attribution and a link to your blog on my Facebook page. Thanks again!
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All the kids at the same time? :-)
(To answer your technical question, it’s a matter of where the photo resides. If your photo is hosted somewhere publicly accessible, you can just post the link in a comment here for it to be displayed. Otherwise, you would have to send the actual photo to us for it to be hosted here, and displayed.)
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Here are the pics:
(both photos by Laura Clark)
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Actually just realized you had a clickable link for pram! I had no idea that was a type of boat! :) We heard others discussing it as a “ferry!”
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Laura—
I know all about memories, and am glad to have preserved some for you! Looking through my photos, I see I have some others of your team that I didn’t use (there were just too many photos!). If you would like to have them, let me know (you can contact us through the “Contact Us!” page) :-)
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Thanks, Vladimir! Just sent you a message!
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Got it!
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Sounds like an interesting event. Do the cardboard boats stay afloat for a long time?
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Some do… ;-)
As Frank Winters commented above, these are really tape vessels with cardboard backing. So the more tape, the more waterproof the boat will be. Without enough tape, the cardboard will get soggy and disintegrate quite soon. And the tape ensures that all the parts hold together—if you put the tape in the right places. Many of the boats folded up right away. And of course nothing will help you if your boat is seriously unstable and capsizes repeatedly…
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That’s great fun! :D
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It was!! :-)
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I cannot help but laugh looking at the photos. I feel like I was there. What a fun event for everyone. It would have made me sick to my stomach just laughing at the mishaps esp. Everyone’s a great sport.
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Well, it was pretty safe—a sunny, warm water, help right at hand… But we did watch some of the wobbly boats and so wanted them not to capsize, all the while knowing that the next second they would…
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last year when I was reading about this is what got me to following your blog…just thought this was so much fun!
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And it was double the fun this year!! :-)
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Wow, a lot of fun! Amazing.
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It was!! :-)
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Awesome !!!
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Thanks!!
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This was exciting! Awesome to the max. Funny how you did a close up on the “motivation”. Haha!
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It was totally unintentional, I swear! ;-)
Really, I had no idea I’d taken that picture until I looked at the pictures on the computer later at home. Then we fell over ourselves laughing for about five minutes… :-)
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Shutter slip? ;-P
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The camera doesn’t lie ;-)
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What fun! I remember last year’s race as you shared it; this one was even more exciting! Thanks Johna and Vlad for sharing such a fun day!
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This one was more exciting because more competitors ended up in the drink! Which is what everyone came to see… :-)
Thanks, Lynn!!
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Haha…that was real fun to view…must have been even better to experience first hand! :)
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And for that reason, we are talking about entering the race ourselves next year… :-)
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Look like a whole lot of Fun :-D
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None better on a hot summer’s day… :-)
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Very cool Johna, thanks for the pics Vlad!
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You are most welcome, Michael—thanks!!
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such fun! great story and pictures! thanks for sharing
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You are most welcome—thank you!!
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Some out for a duck, some in for a duck. What super fun you all seem to have had. Tell me – did anybody lazily opt for a raft and – had it been lashing rain, would the event have still gone ahead? Thanks for giving me this chuckle Johna and Vladimir. Terrific post.
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Well, Nancy and Tim and their team did build something like a raft—
but that was no means a lazy solution. On the contrary, it took a lot of hard work to build up many layers of cardboard into a structure that was flat and stiff, with a lot of empty space inside so that it would float high enough. (Unfortunately, theirs proved to be not quite watertight, I think, and gradually filled up with water and started to capsize during the race…)
Lashing rain? That normally shouldn’t have stopped the event—kayakers are used to getting wet, although there might have been fewer spectators with fancy cameras—but, on the other hand, the cardboard might have gotten wet before its time…
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I bow to thee N & T, well done, both of you. As for you, Johna and Vladimir, you have me singing again whilst Messing About on the River. Glad it didn’t rain and dissolve all the crafts too soon, such Jolly Boating Weather,…what!?
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“Messing about in boats” is probably the best way to summarize the Cardboard Kayak Race :-)
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What a hoot! As long as everyone was a good swimmer, sounds like a great deal of fun. LOOKS like fun, too :-)
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Well, some of the participants did give the impression that they couldn’t swim… that’s why the rescue kayaks were there! :-)
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What a fabulous way to spend the day – thanks so much for sharing so much ingenuity :-)
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There was much ingenuity on display, and many theories of naval architecture were tested… ;-)
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What fun! Although I, like you, would opt for the safety kayak! Great photos.
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Next year—maybe—we’ll leave the safety of the safety kayaks and try a cardboard kayak :-)
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I had no idea I was so behind on your blog! This is hilarious and I wondered who won until I watched the video. How long does an average craft last? The US Coast Guard team looked pretty serious : )
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The Coast Guard teams (there were two of them) were both serious contenders, but the Stevens team and the North Brooklyn Boat Club team were just a bit better…
As you probably could see, the average craft didn’t last long enough even for one heat ;-)
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Wow, that looks like a very fun day was had by all. I wouldn’t dare attempt using cardboard for something that is supposed to float on the water… :)
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Well, that was the challenge! And some actually met it successfully—at least temporarily… :-)
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Our town does this each year, it’s a riot!!!
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:-) Yes, the custom seems to be spreading. Soon it will be like fireworks, a rite of passage each summer…
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