Cardboard boat races

When we were in town enjoying the Bay Days Celebration, we saw that there were going to be Cardboard Boat building and racing in the afternoon,

... we decided that we'd like to see the racing, so we rode our bikes down to 6th Street beach a little after 2pm.

We got there early enough to see folks putting finishing touches on their boats. They were evidently provided with cardboard, a roll of duct tape per team, and spray paint (to decorate their boats -- not sure whether it helped with seaworthiness at all).

Boats 1&2...

... boats 3&4. We were kind of rooting for boat 3 (on the right) -- the grandfather of the youngster was sitting next to us -- the grandson and his mom (daughter of the fellow we just met) and her boyfriend had just recently moved to Ashland from California.

They were going to run 2 heats -- boat 1 (built and captained by last year's champion) against boat 3, then boats 2 and 4. If more than one boat made it through the course (about 50ft straight down along the beach), they would have a tiebreaker.

Ready, set...

Go!

Our friend was having a little difficulty getting the boat to go down the course...

while boat 1 was confidently completing the course.

The dad continued gamely paddling, but, ultimately, unfortunately, his balancing knee caused boat to capsize before reaching the ending pylon.

In a great example of being a good competitor, the builder and pilot of boat 1 waded in and helped pull boat 3 to the finish line.

Boats 2 and 4 on the "go!"

These two had a little more competitive race...

but both eventually capsized before reaching the finish line (and boat 1's crew again waded in to help each of them across the finish!).

The winning captain!

It appeared that most of the boats were designed and primarily built by an adult, but kids were involved in each and everyone seemed to have great fun!