SPRINGFIELD, Va. — What happens when you combine a whole bunch of duct tape and cardboard? The 26th annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, held Sunday at Lake Accotink Park in Springfield, Virginia.
The popular cardboard boat races are part of this weekend’s Springfield Days community festival.
Jim Hickey, a longtime emcee for the boat races, says about 40 or 50 boats were expected to take part: “Everybody has a great time, and on a hot day, if you happen to go into the water, that’s not a bad thing.”
Members of Fairfax County’s SACC (School Age Child Care) program were expected to build about 20 or 30 boats. Centre Ridge Elementary School, for instance, built its own cardboard boat. Called the “Thunderbird,” it copied a 1981 Columbia space shuttle, says Amar Bargoti, SACC teacher at Centre Ridge in Centreville.
Bargoti says it took his students about five weeks to build it.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova was back again this year to judge the boats. Also helping to judge the boats was Northern Virginia Delegate Vivian Watts (D-39th).
“There will be awards for a variety of categories, including my favorite ‘most likely to sink’,” Hickey says. “Or as I call [it], ‘this boat won’t float award.’”
