News : First Cardboard Boat Race comes to Vinton pool

Alex Maynard poses with her trophy after winning the race.

Anton B's boat was reduced to a pile of soaked cardboard and duct tape.

Max Vasquez swims to the finish line, dragging the Gray Pearl behind him.

Even the winner, Alex Maynard in the SS Sinker, found finishing a race in a cardboard box very diffi

The young sailors begin the race.

Parents steadied the cardboard vessels as the children climb aboard.

Alex Vasquez before the race in the Gray Pearl...

... and after.

The first VPRD Cardboard Boat Race included 4 kids and inspired adults to consider racing, too.

Ahoy, ye landlubbers!

Avast! Behold! Beyond yonder horizon!

Sailing into the sunset me sees four vessels, each with a young pup at the helm.

ARR! Now they are all awash, having been cast into the brimy deep!

From an organizer's standpoint, the first Vinton Parks and Recreation Department Cardboard Boat Race was a success (see the video at the end of the story). Four participants had a good time, and the youngsters inspired some grown-ups to look forward to participating in the next round.

From a participant's viewpoint, however, the event indicated that that sailors are beginning buccaneers whose ships sank before they made it halfway to the finish line.

Two lads and two lasses heeded the call for cardboard sailors. With the help of their parents, Anton Benjegerdes, Max Vasquez and Alex and Addy Maynard built their own ships using only cardboard and duct tape, as required by the rules.

Anton built a Pirate Ship; Max did, too, naming his vessel the Grey Pearl. Alex named her boat the SS Sinker, while her younger sister made a much smaller vessel.

Shortly after 7 p.m. the sailors and their parents lined up at the east end of the 4-foot pool, preparing to sail off into the sunset -- or at least the west end of the pool near the water slide.

Anton, the eventual winner of the Titanic Award, was the first to sink. He had barely left the concrete shore when his boat capsized, making him the first to plunge into the drink. Addy and Max followed shortly, making it a few feet before they, too, went from sailors to swimmers. Alex fared much better; she and the SS Sinker had made it nearly to the halfway point before her boat too, lived up -- or as it were, down -- to its name. The SS Sinker first listed to port, then capsized.

The four then swam to the finish line, towing the remnants of their ships behind them.

Each of the four, however, was able to return to land with some booty; an envelope of prizes from the VPRD. Alex won the trophy as the race winner, and her sister won the second-place prize. Anton's sudden plunge into the pool in his boat earned him the Titanic prize while Max won the prize for the best design.

The Gray Pearl

Inspired by Captain Jack Sparrow, Max and his dad, Alex, the middle school teacher and military history lover, created a boat from a generator box -- the family bought the unit after the storm damaged windows and shingles as well as put a tree on their porch. Alex said they used 3.5 rolls of duct tape to cover the bottom and sides and seams of the boat.

Grownups inspired for next race

Several adults watching the event expressed interested in building grown-up boats for a future cardboard boat race. Bud Maynard, the dad of Addy and Alex, said his girls had their boats finished when he got home from his job as a construction company project manager. He helped them with the duct tape. Bud was one of several men there who expressed interest in participating in any future boat races.

Cardboard and duct tape only

The biggest challenge for the shipbuilders is the limit on what they can use: Cardboard and duct tape. Some boat races allow other, more waterproof materials. But the spirit of cardboard boat racing requires the most basic materials.

Barker said the interest in the first event may inspire him to organize another in the future.

[VIDEO]