You sank my Craftsman-Ship: Cardboard boats battle for pool supremacy

The phrase "whatever floats your boat" took on new meaning at the University of New Brunswick on Tuesday afternoon, where engineering students achieved the near-impossible feat of floating boats made of cardboard and duct tape.

As a test of theiringenuityand teamwork, engineeringstudents finished their semester by building seaworthy crafts out of the not-so-seaworthy materials.

"Unfortunately, ourscollapsedright before the end," said second-year engineering student TaylorQuinlan. "So we were close."

Professors captained their students' creations across the Lady Beaverbrook pool at the university's Fredericton campus as a part of a competitive relay race.

While some vessels held up admirably, other suffered frombalancing issues, structural defects, and less-than-adequatepaddles that contributed to their demise.

Despite the boats'comicalappearances,Quinlansays there's a lot of design that goes into making them durable enough to keepseveral hundred pounds afloat, using only a paper product as construction material.

"First we tested the cardboard to see how much it could withstand. And we alsobuilt a prototype. And tested it in the flume in the engineering building."

With names like "Seal Team 6"and "Bluenose III" none of the boats escaped a watery grave at the end of thecompetition, as professorsstress tested them all to their limits. But one notable entry did manage to hold four adults beforeraucousbehavioursealed its fate.

"They werestructurally for the most part okay,"said Katy Haralampides, a professor in civil engineering at UNB. "Overall they floated the whole way."

"Teamwork skills,communication skills,analyzing,buoyancycalculations, stress and bending-momentcalculations," listedHaralampidesfrom the pool. "It's also interactive and a lot of fun."