48th Great Cardboard Boat Regatta draws hundreds, participants show off ingenuity

CARBONDALE, Ill. (KBSI) – Can cardboard float? Well, of course it can. But at the Great Cardboard Boat Regatta, sometimes the question is for how long?

And in some instances, the answer to that question is not for long, but other times, as was the case for Dallas and Mackinzie Terry and their Green Machine, that cardboard can glide across the water with the greatest of ease. 

The father-daughter tandem completed the course in a minute and 30 seconds, the fastest out of all 30 entrants.

So how did their boat go so fast? 

“Streamlining, physics, man, physics,” Dallas Terry said.

Terry teaches applied physics at Carbondale Community High School, so that may have played to his advantage. 

He said the classroom-to-community connection that students experience during this event is special. 

“That connectedness of just what we’re learning in the classroom but then how they can use that in the community, and just that connection to the community, too, and just to have a good time, too, because it’s fun,” he said.

Emcee Dr. Lee Elliott, a professor at Southern Illinois University, said the creativity on display was impressive. 

“The ingenuity that these kids put into the boats that they make, whether they’re in college, or they’re in high school or even younger, that is, I believe, one of the most important things,” he said.

One of those kids, Orion Weisberg, was one of two participants to be tasked with using a kit to build a boat at the event and then race it, and he muscled his way through two laps around the course. 

“I’m pretty strong, but I don’t have a lot of stamina, so I got really tired after a while,” he said. 

Terry shares his message for those who are hesitant about entering the race. 

“Everybody’s worried, oh gosh, the cardboard’s not going to float,” he said. The cardboard’s going to float. It’s about going fast.” 

And fast he and Mackinzie went.