Two boats sat beside each other at the Campus Lake boat docks. One boat contained a group of focused teenage girls, the other a confident group of teenage males. Both are made of cardboard.

The boat of young men sinks almost immediately. While the girls glide by comfortably. The girls are not in the lead. They do not win the race, but they do complete it, which is more than can be said for the young men.

There is nothing embarrassing about the young men’s fate in the race though. In fact, they remain in the water for several minutes, soaking wet, smirking and chatting about their current disposition.

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The young men are participants in the Great Cardboard Regatta, an event that originated on the SIUC campus, and has taken place at the University for the past three decades. Students, community members and people from surrounding areas gathered at the Campus Lake boat docks for the races, from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s something, cheap and inexpensive that anyone can get involved with,” said Mike Fleming, a teacher of industrial technology at Carterville High School, who makes the construction of the boat a final project in his class. “We take it pretty serious, but you take it with a grain of salt at the same time. It’s always something that you don’t anticipate that goes wrong. We just do our best and learn from our mistakes.”

Fleming had several students that took part in the races for younger participants in a day that saw about 25 boats race in a variety of classes. Heats of three to four boats participated in adult and children races that were broken down into classes for paddle and mechanical boats and instant boats constructed that morning.

While the Regatta saw a large, steady crowd throughout the approximately five hours people began venturing to the docks, participants such as Bill Archer can recall a time when the races were a much larger spectacle.

“I’d like to see it grow back to its original size when there were about 200 boats,” said Archer, a senior in management information systems from DeSoto, who has been racing since age eight and participating in the Regatta for the past five years with the same boat. “Sink or swim no one has a bad time. It’s a tradition and I would hate to see it die.”

While Archer’s friends enjoyed the sight of watching their friend take first place in the Class II competition, they also saw the event as a great social opportunity for both students and local residents.

“This is one of the first times I’ve seen people and community members having a good time together,” said David Campbell, a senior in management information systems from McNabb. “We have a reputation of not getting along with each other and events like this prove differently.”

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The Regatta not only saw participants from the community and campus, but, also individuals in various age groups who spent the morning and some of the afternoon experiencing the thrill of victory, as well as the agony of defeat.

At the end of the day, the fate of each boat was written, appropriately enough on a large piece of cardboard that featured the times, and names of boats such as the Yellow Submarine, Ghetto Fabulous and the Water Weasels.

The Water Weasel crew took first place in the children’s division, receiving ribbons, certificates and a cardboard trophy for their feat. The three members of the crew could not be located for several minutes after the announcement of their victory and seemed more overwhelmed than excited about the attention they were receiving.

Some, however, including a few disgruntled parents, were more concerned with vanity. But according to Kenneth Harris, who has attended the event for several years, the competition is, for the most part is not taken too seriously.

“You’ll get a few people who are way too competitive about their kids boats,” said Harris, a sophomore in industrial design from Nashville, who along with other coordinator Larry Bush and other members of the Industrial Design Society of America helped to organize the event this year. “But everybody takes it pretty lightly for the most part. It’s just something you get a kick out of. I mean the boats are made from cardboard, right?”

Reporter Jessica Yorama can be reached at [email protected]