Float or sink? Teamwork meets design

The goal was to create a boat using cardboard and duct tape.
& lt;a href=mailto:tullis@vindy.com & gt;By NANCY TULLIS & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
CANFIELD -- One might expect a band of pirates to be able to maneuver on the "high seas," but The Grim Reaper?
The 2003 Raider Regatta had it all. Pirates. Mermaids. Vikings. Firefighters. Hula girls. A floating watermelon. The annual event for South Range High School sophomores is an exercise in teamwork and combines math, science, language and communications skills.
The students' goal is to create a seaworthy boat using only cardboard and duct tape.
On Monday, they put their vessels to the test on the lake at Dreamy Acres, south of Canfield. Teams were divided according to how many students were in the boats. They poled, paddled and pulled across the lake and back, with two teams racing at a time.
Neil Pryor as The Grim Reaper and Alex Grist smoothly sailed across the lake and back in what appeared to be a simple vessel, dubbed "Das Ende," German for "the end."
Neil explained that it was the intricate layer of triangular supports unseen in the base of the boat that kept it seaworthy. The supports gave the boat a solid bottom, without which Neil said the boat would quickly sink.
No touchdown
Joe Novak, Todd Cash, Alex Grantz and Doug Miller took advice from brothers who have participated in previous regattas. They built a boat with a strong base and high sides, and resisted the temptation to jump into the boat after pushing off.
Doing that can lead to disaster, as the jumper would likely break through the boat bottom.
The boys said they spent about 12 hours Sunday building their entry, called "The Bronconator," a tribute to John Elway, the retired quarterback from the National Football League's Denver Broncos.
The boat began to take on water on the return trip. They ditched goal posts and anything else that was too heavy, including the 6-foot-3-inch Alex, but the boat came apart before it reached shore.
Seedy entry
Dressed in black, including black face paint, the team of Mindy Gribben, April Rynzer, Lynn O'Connell, Heather Stacy and Lauren Parks climbed into "The 'Water' Melon" and did their best impersonation of watermelon seeds as they piloted the watermelon-shaped craft.
The watermelon proved seaworthy, and the girls made a quick trip across the lake and back, winning their heat against a fierce-looking band of Vikings.
Lauren Lenio, Abby Kondas and Jennifer McCallister said they spent three or four hours a night for six weeks working on their entry, "The Black Pearl," named for a ship in the Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."
The pirate ship was complete with a mast draped with shredded black sails. The girls dressed appropriately, including penciled-in goatees.
They said building an actual boat was easier than building a boat and then decorating it to look like a tank, an ice cream truck, or a stop sign as other contestants did. They said the process of designing and building a boat starts with paper models tested in a wading pool during class.
Besides the science and mathematics involved in the physics of flotation, they also are required to keep a log of the experience and write a report.
They said the project also taught them teamwork and cooperation, and how to pick up slack and finish the work even when not everyone pulls their own weight. In the end, The Black Pearl proved seaworthy, and the girls won their heat.
Wet firefighter
The & quot;South Range Fire Department & quot; team had a successful voyage in their firetruck vessel. Josh Toth, Dan Holloway and Brianne Witmer were decked out in helmets and coats borrowed from firefighters.
They said they didn't know exactly how long they took to build their boat, noting simply that it was a lot of hard work. Their voyage ended with a splash as Josh's misstep caused him to flip out of the front of the boat into the lake. He said he was concentrating on keeping the boat turned in the proper direction.
He said in spite of a sign in the boat placed as a reminder not to step in a weak area, that's precisely where he found his foot going. The three won their heat and took the spill in stride.
"We're just crowd-pleasers," Brianne said.
& lt;a href=mailto:tullis@vindy.com & gt;tullis@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;