Cardboard Boat Regatta stays afloat

The Cardboard Boat Regatta may not be as popular as it once was, but a loyal group of paper-steering sailors are doing their best to keep the tradition afloat.

At noon Saturday, sailors will maneuver paper ships along a 300-yard course for the 32nd consecutive year. Larry Briggs, a professor of art, and Larry Busch, a retired professor who works with the University Museum, organized the event. In the past, Good Morning America, MTV, CNN, Sports Illustrated and a Japanese news team have covered the regatta. But last year, the race was nearly canceled because interest and funding were low. Letting the regatta die would be a mistake because of its roots, organizers said.

"It was invented here," Busch said. "It'd be a real shame to let such a positive tradition disappear." It all started 32 years ago when Richard Archer was given a challenge by the University. "Back when I was a new faculty member, they gave me a class and said, 'Fix it,'" Archer said. "It was a creative problem-solving class, and I always liked projects that you looked at and said, 'This can't be done.'" For their final exam in Archer's class, students were told they needed to sail across Campus Lake in a boat made of cardboard, he said. Since then, cardboard boats have raced around a 300-yard course every spring.

Since the regatta's conception, those involved with it have done their best to share with others. He put 14,000 miles on his mobile home in one summer setting up races all across the country from Orlando, Fla., to Tempe, Ariz., Archer said. There have been boats shaped like space shuttles, sports cars and even giant bulldozers, he said.

"It was so big, the guys paddling sat in the wheel wells," Archer said. Busch, who taught design at SIUC before retiring and working part time at the museum, said desert islands were always popular with student builders. Often times they were able to do a good job making it look real, Busch said. "We've had some boats that were so spectacular you had to touch them to see if it was made of paper," Busch said.

A crowd of 5,000 used to come watch the 'spectacular' boats, and racers once built a cardboard barge that successfully carried 50 people, two dogs and a baby across the lake, Briggs said. While mass interest has gone down, there are still faithful cardboard racers. Briggs' son, 19-year-old Brandon, has been racing since he was 9.

"He's a blood racer," Briggs said. "He's racing to win." Brandon Briggs won first place five times, but he said winning isn't as fun as getting to see all the weird designs people come up with, like one man who made boat shoes and tried to walk across the lake. He got 20 feet out before sinking, Briggs said.

"It's more for fun than it is to win," Brandon Briggs said. "But once you get out there and you start paddling, it gets competitive." A few years ago, Brandon jumped out to an early lead when another racer reached out and hit the tail of his boat with a paddle, he said the impact spun him completely around, but he was still able to pull off a second-place finish.

Hitting an opponent's boat with a paddle is against the rules, but water balloons, water guns and cardboard cannons that pump water out of the lake and into an opponent's boat have all been legally done before, Larry Briggs said. He may race to win, but Brandon Briggs said new racers don't threaten him. "My first year ever racing, I was up against 85, 90 boats," he said. "Last year, there were only two of us in the running for first place. I would love more competition."

As an experienced racer, he has advice for newcomers. "You should always expect to get wet," Brandon Briggs said. "I've never had a boat sink, but every year I seem to get drenched."